{"id":2210,"date":"2013-10-31T13:00:49","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T18:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/?p=2210"},"modified":"2013-10-29T21:25:39","modified_gmt":"2013-10-30T02:25:39","slug":"dear-god-i-dont-get-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/10\/dear-god-i-dont-get-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear God, I Don&#8217;t Get It"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/94\/2013\/10\/cover-deargod.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2211\" title=\"cover-deargod\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/94\/2013\/10\/cover-deargod.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"267\" height=\"400\"><\/a>My eight-year-old has a sense of when I\u2019m reading a book she\u2019ll like. <em>Dear God, I Don\u2019t Get It<\/em>, by Patti Maguire Armstrong (Liguori, 2013) is one of them: it\u2019s perfect for her, and though I don\u2019t have a middle grade son, I think this book would work for either boys or girls. It\u2019s cute, in the \u201cI\u2019m an adult reading a kids\u2019 book\u201d way, without being cutesy.<\/p>\n<p>The storyline is basic and yet\u2026is there anything basic about being in sixth grade? Just thinking of those years makes my throat clench and my palms sweat and\u2026well hey, I\u2019m glad I don\u2019t have to go back to it. Armstrong knows her audience, and she doesn\u2019t downplay what\u2019s important. Reading it as an adult, I empathized. I\u2019m pretty sure that, reading it as a kid, my eight-year-old will come away with the clear sense that she\u2019s loved by God, she has many opportunities for grace, and that forgiveness is freely given.<\/p>\n<p>And the little brothers? Absolutely priceless. I suspect Patti, as a mother of 10, has some stories she could share\u2026and what better way than in a book that will help other kids?<\/p>\n<p>Good little book and definitely worth giving to the kids in your life.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the official synopsis:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This new Catholic fiction novel introduces us to Aaron, a 6th grader who experiences a crisis in faith when his family moves. Author Patti Maguire Armstrong addresses those questions that young adults face when prayers aren\u2019t answered in a time of adversity-most importantly, \u201cIs He even listening?\u201d When Aaron shows compassion to an unlikely kid and risks losing his newfound friends\u2019 acceptance, he experiences the reality that being a real hero sometimes means that others will turn against you. Will God be there to save Aaron and his faltering faith?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My eight-year-old has a sense of when I\u2019m reading a book she\u2019ll like. Dear God, I Don\u2019t Get It, by Patti Maguire Armstrong (Liguori, 2013) is one of them: it\u2019s perfect for her, and though I don\u2019t have a middle grade son, I think this book would work for either boys or girls. It\u2019s cute, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1133,"featured_media":2211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[112,273,341],"class_list":["post-2210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-fiction","tag-middle-grade","tag-review"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dear God, I Don&#039;t Get It<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My eight-year-old has a sense of when I\u2019m reading a book she\u2019ll like. Dear God, I Don&#039;t Get It, by Patti Maguire Armstrong (Liguori, 2013) is one of them:\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/10\/dear-god-i-dont-get-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dear God, I Don&#039;t Get It\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My eight-year-old has a sense of when I\u2019m reading a book she\u2019ll like. Dear God, I Don&#039;t Get It, by Patti Maguire Armstrong (Liguori, 2013) is one of them:\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/10\/dear-god-i-dont-get-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Happy Catholic Bookshelf\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-31T18:00:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-10-30T02:25:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/94\/2013\/10\/cover-deargod.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"267\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sarah Reinhard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sarah Reinhard\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/10\/dear-god-i-dont-get-it\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/10\/dear-god-i-dont-get-it\/\",\"name\":\"Dear God, I Don't Get It\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-31T18:00:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-10-30T02:25:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#\/schema\/person\/5d2d33d15f700477e691ef4b4ad2d352\"},\"description\":\"My eight-year-old has a sense of when I\u2019m reading a book she\u2019ll like. Dear God, I Don't Get It, by Patti Maguire Armstrong (Liguori, 2013) is one of them:\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/10\/dear-god-i-dont-get-it\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/10\/dear-god-i-dont-get-it\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/10\/dear-god-i-dont-get-it\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Dear God, I Don&#8217;t Get It\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/\",\"name\":\"Happy Catholic Bookshelf\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#\/schema\/person\/5d2d33d15f700477e691ef4b4ad2d352\",\"name\":\"Sarah Reinhard\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8a2e7031410ef9c98d4ccd946de71b0e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8a2e7031410ef9c98d4ccd946de71b0e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sarah Reinhard\"},\"description\":\"Looking for Sarah Reinhard? Chances are she's hiding from her kids with her nose in a book...which is just too bad for the housework and cooking. Her greatest delight of late is how her kids are becoming bigger bibliophiles than she is. (And she's really only a beginner and a hack at that.) She\u2019s online at SnoringScholar.com, CatholicMom.com, and is the author of a number of books.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/snoringscholar.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/author\/sarahreinhard\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dear God, I Don't Get It","description":"My eight-year-old has a sense of when I\u2019m reading a book she\u2019ll like. Dear God, I Don't Get It, by Patti Maguire Armstrong (Liguori, 2013) is one of them:","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/10\/dear-god-i-dont-get-it\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dear God, I Don't Get It","og_description":"My eight-year-old has a sense of when I\u2019m reading a book she\u2019ll like. Dear God, I Don't Get It, by Patti Maguire Armstrong (Liguori, 2013) is one of them:","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/10\/dear-god-i-dont-get-it\/","og_site_name":"Happy Catholic Bookshelf","article_published_time":"2013-10-31T18:00:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-10-30T02:25:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"267","height":"400","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/94\/2013\/10\/cover-deargod.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sarah Reinhard","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sarah Reinhard","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/10\/dear-god-i-dont-get-it\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/10\/dear-god-i-dont-get-it\/","name":"Dear God, I Don't Get It","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-10-31T18:00:49+00:00","dateModified":"2013-10-30T02:25:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#\/schema\/person\/5d2d33d15f700477e691ef4b4ad2d352"},"description":"My eight-year-old has a sense of when I\u2019m reading a book she\u2019ll like. Dear God, I Don't Get It, by Patti Maguire Armstrong (Liguori, 2013) is one of them:","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/10\/dear-god-i-dont-get-it\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/10\/dear-god-i-dont-get-it\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/10\/dear-god-i-dont-get-it\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dear God, I Don&#8217;t Get It"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/","name":"Happy Catholic Bookshelf","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#\/schema\/person\/5d2d33d15f700477e691ef4b4ad2d352","name":"Sarah Reinhard","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8a2e7031410ef9c98d4ccd946de71b0e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8a2e7031410ef9c98d4ccd946de71b0e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sarah Reinhard"},"description":"Looking for Sarah Reinhard? Chances are she's hiding from her kids with her nose in a book...which is just too bad for the housework and cooking. Her greatest delight of late is how her kids are becoming bigger bibliophiles than she is. (And she's really only a beginner and a hack at that.) She\u2019s online at SnoringScholar.com, CatholicMom.com, and is the author of a number of books.","sameAs":["http:\/\/snoringscholar.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/author\/sarahreinhard\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}