“I love it. I never knew what was next so I wanted to keep on reading it. I love the characters, too.” Morgan, 11 years old.“I like it because it’s exciting.” Madison, 8 years old.“I liked it because I liked how they traveled to different places.” Jack, 8 years old.When Peter Puckett prays for help, God sends him on an exciting quest through the fantastic world of EVERMORE! With the aid of … EVERMORE! With the aid of giants, dwarfs, elves and his own guardian angel, Peter must face a horde of monsters, swim past the Leviathan and survive the Realm of Goblins!
Peter’s amazing journey will test his strength and courage, but most of all it will challenge his faith as Peter must learn to let go of his fears and trust that God will always keep His promises.
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Peter Puckett is a boy of 10 who is just learning what faith is. Faced with his mother battling cancer, Peter desperately prays for God to help him and is sent an angel to take him on an exciting quest to save her.
I’m having a very difficult time deciding my feelings about this book, which honestly took me by surprise. I love fantasy, and I especially love fantasy that includes Christian themes. The Narnia series (C.S. Lewis) is one of my all-time favorite fantasies so when I read about Peter Puckett and the Amulet of Eternity, I got some serious Narnia vibes about this book. However, there were some things that just didn’t fall in line with my personal preferences in this book. And I would like to disclose that this a personal opinion that other parents and/or guardians may disagree with and have no issue with, so I do not hope to sway readers away from those who have enjoyed and loved Peter Puckett and The Amulet of Eternity, but I do want to say why I didn’t care for it as much as I’d hoped.
I, personally, do not like mixing the realities of the Christian faith and Biblical teaching with fantasy in the way that this book does–especially to children audiences. If I understand the heart of the book correctly (to show Jesus to young readers), then I completely applaud the goals here. However, I do not like to see fiction and faith mixed this thoroughly and compactly into a story, where Bible beings are equal to the fantasy elements. How can we expect children to put their faith in the Lord and believe the teachings of the Bible while portraying it in the same form and on the same level as fiction? In this story, angels and demons are just as involved in the story as goblins and monsters, and I have a problem with trying to explain to a child why we believe in the angels and demons (and even Leviathan!), but that the goblins and monsters aren’t real, especially when this book’s goal seems to be to share the Gospel and Biblical truths with young readers. Plus, angels and demons do not appear in our world as they did to Peter Puckett, so I believe it presents a misconception of the Biblical beings as well (which is necessary for the purpose of the story, I agree, but not in accordance to the Bible which is quoted often throughout the book. So if the Bible is absolute truth in the story, it’s confusing that the things that are mentioned in the Bible are not as the Bible describes in that same story.). I also didn’t care for the prayer language (tongues) being used as a reason for Peter Puckett to understand animal speech and beings of other languages. There are many examples that I could provide that smeared that line for me, but I don’t want to bash the book, so I’ll leave it at that and reiterate that this is a personal conviction of mine and that other parents and/or guardians may see no issue and may even be looking for fantasy that involves the Bible this intensely. But personally, it made me uneasy.
Now, on the flip side, I absolutely love the heart of the book and Peter Puckett is positively adorable! I think the story is well-written and that Peter Puckett is an accurate depiction of an inquisitive middle grader that many, many young readers will be able to relate to. From start to finish, I felt compassion for Peter and I was very pleased with the ending, it was just the previously mentioned that makes me hesitant to recommend it. However, I will always recommend Christian-based fantasy to young readers over non-Christian fantasy and I don’t think my preferences in this instance would keep me from mentioning this book to parents in search of clean reads for their kids, though it wouldn’t be my first recommendation. So, overall, I give it 3 out of 5 stars.
Trigger Warnings: Death of family members, a mother struggling with cancer, father died in the military (Marines), and bullying.
I received this book from the author for free, however, the review is voluntary. All comments and opinions are entirely my own.