Books for Christian Girls: "Newfangled" by Kristin N. Spencer

About this book:

“Olive is reluctant to face her first day at a new school where everyone else already knows each other. This year, she’s the new girl, and she doesn’t know if that is a good or a bad thing. Should she stick with Trish and Jacey, the obvious mean girls at R&R who have welcomed her into their group, or take a risk and join the Mashables, a quick-witted group of unlikely friends? And why are her friends from church being so distant?
Navigating through life as a twelve-year-old girl growing up in Southern California can be tricky. Embracing the ginger, sci-fi loving, introverted girl God created her to be — well that’s even trickier. Join Olive on her quest to figure out who God wants her to be, while dealing with the social pressures and problems she encounters at school, and in life in general.”

Series: Book #1 in the “Desires & Decisions” series.

Spiritual Content- Many, many, many Prayers and Blessings over food; Thanking the Lord; Bible & Devotional reading; Many, many Scriptures are mentioned, read, quoted, talked about, and thought over; Going to Church & Youth Group along with many messages are said; Many, many, many talks about God, Him loving us, missionaries, waiting, forgiving, trusting, obeying, and enemies; ‘H’s are capital when referring to God & Jesus; Olive is called a Jesus freak (which she’s totally okay with); At a couple points, Olive becomes very angry with God, but does get over it; A Christmas play and many, many, many mentions of it; Many, many, many mentions of God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit; Many, many, many mentions of prayers & praying; Many, many mentions of churches, Sunday School, Youth Group & Pastors; Many, many mentions of blessings; Many mentions of Christians; Mentions of singing worship songs and home fellowship meetings; Mentions of Bibles & Bible reading; Mentions of those in the Bible; Mentions of missionaries & testimonies; Mentions of a church Harvest Festival A few mentions of a private Christian school; A couple mentions of Catholic schools;

*Note: Mentions of religions; Mentions of Halloween and its witch craft & demonic beginning/parts; Mentions of the alien in the Christmas play (and mentions of assuring everyone that the church isn’t teaching that aliens existed, it’s just a play); A few mentions of idols; A few mentions of heresy; A couple mentions of non-religious families; A couple mentions of an Ouija board, a séance and sorcery; A mention of not believing in luck.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘blasted’, a ‘gah’, a ‘holy cow’, an ‘oh my gosh’, a ‘what the heck’, a ‘witch’, two ‘sheesh’s, and seven forms of ‘dumb’; Some sass, sarcasm, eye rolling & attitudes; Many mentions of ISIS, terror attacks, the Paris bombing, Syrian refugees, families murdered & dead bodies (barely-above-not-detailed); Many mentions of mean girls, bullying & mean teasing/being picked on; Mentions of gossips; Mentions of puking & throw up (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of a bathroom situation & large human waste; A few mentions of suicide (barely-above-not-detailed); A few mentions of lying; A couple mentions of fighting & wars; A mention of a movie with bad words in it;

*Note: Mentions & Hints of sci-fi characters, like Doctor Who; A mention of zombies.

Sexual Content- Olive has some trouble with her feelings for Dean (she doesn’t want to have feelings for him or any boy, and it all causes emotions (red faces, a stomach feeling weird, and his smile doing something to her knees); Many, many mentions of and talks about dating, dates, not being allowed to date, boys, crushes, blushes, jealousy, couples, liking someone & natural feelings; Mentions of & talks about the Bible verse about not awakening love too early and feelings “that God created for two loving adults, which results in marriage and sex.”; Mentions of purity and waiting; Mentions of Melissa sneaking around with a boy she likes (they’ve kissed, but no mentions of anything else); Mentions of teens kissing; Mentions of married couples kissing; A few mentions of labor and breastfeeding; A couple mentions of the start of “such-and-such sitting in the tree…”; A mention of boy crazy girls; A mention of estrogen; A mention of a ministry for those who struggle with same sex attraction (no details); a ‘hot’, four ‘babe’s (a husband talking to his wife on the last one(s));

*Note: Olive starts her period for the first time and mentions of it, pads, cramping and womanhood; Mentions of breasts growing, being well developed, bras, sport bras, bra shopping (and a mention of guys staring if a girl’s breasts are “too big”, but “if they aren’t big enough no guy will ever notice you. It’s just lame either way.”); Mentions of shaving; A couple mentions of granny panties and underwear; A mention of skinny jeans accentuating Olive’s growing curves in an unflattering way; A mention of a boy wishing his sister didn’t wear such skimpy clothes; A mention of a boy saying “Nice legs” to Olive; A mention of PMSing.

-Olive Callis, age 12
P.O.V. mainly of Olive but does switch to a couple others P.O.V.

{Set in Fall-Winter of 2015}
296 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

{Add 1 ½ to 2 ½ stars for girls in Public School}

These ratings are hard to do for this one, y’all. “Newfangled” is a great book that covers many topics girls age 11-13 have to deal with. {You could honestly pay me thousands of dollars and I would still not go back to that 12/13 age. *shivers*} The author puts a bunch of different plots in this Pre-teen/Teen book. You have: body changes, boys, friend drama, mean girls, photography, sibling stuff, a Christmas play with an alien (I was skeptic at first on that, but it turned out well) plus many more topics. While more aimed for Public School girls—being heavily set in one—this book has a ton of Spiritual Content and some great talks! Being a photographer myself, I really enjoyed those parts, I was actually 13 when I got my first DSLR. I really did like Olive, she reminds me of some young girls I know. I was really impressed with this book and I look forward to reading the rest of the series as they come out. :)

See y’all on Wednesday with a new review!