Books for Christian Girls: "Hey, Jude Carpenter" by Storm Shultz

About this book:

  “Jude Carpenter likes his life. Sure, his mom is a little intense sometimes, and sure, it would be great if his older brother would help out more on their family dairy farm, but overall, Jude is happy. That is, until he finds out his family could lose their farm, and Jude’s life goes from peaceful stability to tense uncertainty.
    Enter Mona Montgomery, whose life revolves around her cat, Shakespeare, the Beatles, and church. There’s not much else to do in Clearwater. Then she meets Jude, and life gets interesting.
    With Jude's family losing their dairy farm, Mona is desperate to help. Though helping isn't as easy as she had hoped it would be. Jude's mom distrusts the Montgomery family, and that includes Mona. Mona's family did split a whole church, after all.
   Romeo and Juliet had less trouble being near each other than Jude and Mona do. As time slips by and the deadline to lose the farm approaches, can Mona help Jude save the farm he loves?”

Series: As of now, no. A stand-alone novel.

Spiritual Content- 1 Timothy 4:12 is referenced in the dedication; A couple Scriptures are mentioned; Prayers & Thanking God; Church going, a sermon, & hymns/worship; Talks about God & praying; 'H's are capital when referring to God; When at church, Jude zones out during a sermon (which he doesn’t typically do); Jude’s mother has him talk to their pastor after church every Sunday (much to the confusion of both Jude and the pastor because Jude’s a good kid, but Jude does enjoy talking to him and comes to him with a problem); Mona calls a Sunday special because her cousin is singing (saying that it’s special not because of a “lowly” sermon but because of her cousin); Jude’s older brother has gotten out of going to church with their family for the last while (*Spoiler* About halfway through, their mother makes him come with them and he starts going again *End of Spoiler*); Mona writes in a prayer journal because she finds it easier because she can’t say something dumb to God then (she knows that that’s a silly fear because God knows everything already & feels like God is talking back to her written prayers); Jude get hit with “an overwhelming feeling to pray” at one point which he adds hasn’t happened in a while; The church split ten years prior to the book starting and was due to investing money in a new building and expanding the church (we see how this affected Jude and Mona’s mothers’ friendship *Spoiler* and at the end, conversations with both families and their pastors happen; There is an event bringing the two churches together that’s very healing for their families *End of Spoiler*); All about many mentions of churches, pastors, services, sermons, hymns/hymnals, worship music (song titles are given), a church split years before, & the division it caused in a town; Mentions of God & Jesus; Mentions of prayers, praying, & Thanking God; Mentions of Bibles, a Bible study, & a prayer journal; Mentions of church events, Sunday school, & youth group; Mentions of Christians; Mentions of Catholics, Mass, Lutherans, & going to a Protestant church; A few mentions of sprucing up a church almost every Saturday (Jude and his family, which while Jude would love to have his own Saturdays, knows that it’s good to see his “church family more than an hour a week”); A few mentions of miracles; A few mentions of blessings; A few mentions of theology & eschatology; A few mentions of tithing; A few mentions of a gospel singing group; A couple mentions of Christlike behavior (someone having it); A couple mentions of Heaven; A couple mentions of missionaries; A mention of an event in the Bible; A mention of a prayer chain; A mention of someone being accused of being a holiday Christian; A mention of an unequally yoked relationship (& a girl breaking it off because of that); A mention of a cross necklace; A mention of a Christian theologian (R.C. Sproul); A mention of the sin of “speeding and tardiness”;
             *Note: The phrase “for the love of our gracious, heavenly Father” is said, but not meant disrespectfully; Mona’s mother hates mice so much that Mona thinks that “if a mouse are between Mom and heaven, I think Mom would really consider going to hell rather than get through the mouse to get to heaven”; A mention of a family not being a cult that can only eat their own culture’s food; A mention of luck; A mention of a caveman.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘darn it’, a ‘sucks’, a ‘what the—‘, two forms of ‘idiot’, two ‘jeez’s, three ‘heck’s, five ‘oh my gosh’s, ten ‘dumb’s, ten ‘shut up’s, and ten forms of ‘stupid’; A possible curse word is left-off of a sentence (“I’m sorry for being an… for being a jerk to you”); When upset with her cousin, Mona calls her a “cow”; Eye rolling & Sarcasm; A few mentions of curses/bad language (said when adults aren’t around or not said because adults arearound); Planning to tell someone to “kick rocks”; Seeing a fight, injuries, & blood/bleeding (barely-above-not-detailed); Jude’s family is having financial difficulty with their dairy farm & he hears his mother crying and praying about it; Mona goes to take an apple from a tree on Jude’s family’s property & has a bit of guilt, but defends herself when Jude says that it’s stealing; Mentions of Juliet taking her own life for Romeo (Mona doesn’t understand her doing this at all); Mentions of a fight, pain, injuries, & blood/bleeding; Mentions of thieves, stealing, & thinking about stealing a sibling’s car (doesn’t happen nor is seriously thought about, more of a “what if…?” situation); A few mentions of cancer (in thinking that someone’s bad mood is because they have cancer and are dying; not true); A few mentions of vomit; A few mentions of a prank (towards a family business that didn’t go over well); A few mentions of lies & lying; A few mentions of divorces; A few mentions of tattoos; A couple mentions of wars; A few mentions of gangs & gang members; A couple mentions of psychopaths; A couple mentions of gossip; A couple mentions of peeing (a phrase about peeing in someone’s food when the person is in a bad mood); A mention of poison; A mention of bullies; A mention of Jude and his friend being apart of the “rejects” at school; A mention of eavesdropping; A mention of jealousy;
             *Note: Like many married couples, both Mona & Jude’s parents have a few disagreements about minor things and it’s worked out; Jude’s mother is picky about who her children can be friends with (wanting only good influences) & is rude at first to Mona because of past history with their families; Jude’s mother has signs of anxiety (never named but shown as her wanting control & a song makes Jude stop to think about what his mom’s motivations for being so involved in his life are; He wishes their relationship was less stiff and *Spoiler* a bit past the middle, they are able to work through some emotions and he realizes what stress she is under *End of Spoiler*); Jude’s older brother enjoys irritating Jude & acts like a jerk to him at times (including news that was devastating to Jude & messing with their mom for fun, *Spoiler* but past the halfway point, he talks to Jude and they rebuild their relationship again *End of Spoiler*); Mona tries to avoid her mom for a bit because of a decision that felt unfair; Mona feels hurt by her cousin not spending as much time with her after going to college; Mona makes a comment about walking to a place being better for her family’s health and for the environment; Mentions of Jude’s mother calling his older brother’s girlfriend “Miss California” because of her always giggling, talking about movies, always tanning, & wanting to become a model; Mentions of books & authors (mostly classics such as Romeo and Juliet, Narnia, The Hobbit, Anne of Green Gables, Moby Dick, Hamlet, Little Women, Harry Potter, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Ernest Hemmingway); Mentions of songs & groups (Queen, The Beatles and the members, & Hank Williams); Mentions of brand names & places (Cheerios, Chips Ahoy cookies, Post-it notes, Tupperware, Styrofoam, Dairy Queen, Walmart, & Piggly Wiggly); A few mentions of TV shows & a movie (Gilmore Girls, Andy Griffith, & The Titanic); A couple mentions of wrestling matches (MMA & WWE); A couple mentions of a fictional characters (Captain America & Daffy Duck); A mention of a car brand; A mention of social media (Pinterest); A mention of kicking someone’s butt.

Sexual Content- A cheek kiss, two head/forehead kisses, a barely-above-not-detailed, and one border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed kiss; A bit of Touches, Embraces, Hand holding, & Smelling (barely-above-not-detailed); Blushes; Noticing (barely-above-not-detailed); Jude’s brother tells him to stop “checking out” his girlfriend (which Jude wasn’t); Jude is concerned that his brother and his girlfriend might be pregnant, but when he mentions this thought to his brother, his brother tells him that that wouldn’t have happened and that the girlfriend is saving herself (Jude then thinks that he wasn’t expecting to have a conversation about his brother and his girlfriend’s virginity); A college-aged guy calls Mona a “cutie” and she thinks he’s a red flag; Mona’s cousin is in college has a creep around her & she says that he“literally attacks girls” (no other details are given beside that he tried to grab her once and has followed other girls; *Spoiler* his friend didn’t know and they work together to bring awareness to the school about him being a threat *End of Spoiler*); Mentions of girlfriends/boyfriends, dating, dates, being dumped, break-ups, & exes; Mentions of crushes & finding a girl cute; Mentions of boys fighting over a girl (a dad says it’s normal but a mom says that they shouldn’t act like animals); A few mentions of a first kiss; A few mentions of jealousy; A couple mentions of married couples kissing (not-detailed); A mention of a girl perching herself on her boyfriend’s lap; A mention of kissing sounds (teasing by a friend); A mention of a guy kissing his girlfriend’s hand; A mention of flirting; Jude & Mona really are friends only first, but some others tease them about being interested in the other; A bit of love, falling in love, & the emotions (definitely more awkward teenager feelings than sexual tension-filled);
             *Note: Jude thinks someone mistakes him as a girl and panics that he’s going to have to reassess his whole life before realizing that the person is talking to someone else; A couple mentions of a girl being called a hypocrite for dressing the way she does & professing to be a Christian; A mention of Jude’s mother disapproving about a girl’s above-the-knee shorts; A mention of some laws saying that there is an age requirement for love; A mention of it taking long for a couple to have another child.

-Ramona “Mona” Montgomery, age 14
-Jude Carpenter, age 14
                                  1^st person P.O.V. switches between them
                                                        206 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

As soon as I saw about this brand new Cotemporary Christian YA book, I was so excited for it! This feels like coming back to my roots of good Christian contemporary YA summer-ish books. I love it! It gives you the feeling of being outside on a hot summer evening listening to the cicadas with a glass of iced tea. It’s that summer nostalgic feeling that I love that this book had in so well done.

Everyone’s backstories were written in such a realistic way that if you told me if these were actual real people, I think I believe you. That’s always neat when that happens in a book. A couple times it felt a little bit like info dumping, but most of the time it just felt like a friend was catching me up on extended information and family. I love the family and sibling content this book. It just felt so realistic and humorous.

There were a few small parts that made me think that this book is better for 15+ (despite the main characters being 14), but overall it was just a really good and really sweet read. I will note that I wasn’t a fan of Jude & Mona kissing when they’re only 14, but it definitely wasn’t detailed or a major part of the story. I honestly kept picturing them as sixteen, and I would have preferred them to be closer to that age, personally.

Overall, I’m really glad to share that I enjoyed this highly anticipated read but do have a few notes that make me suggest it for slightly older girls.

See y’all on Friday with a new review!