Converting Kate - Hardcover

Weinheimer, Beckie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670061522 ISBN 13: 9780670061525

Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers, 2007

Synopsis

Kate was raised in the Holy Divine Church—it influenced everything from her homeschooling to her handmade clothes. But ever since her unbelieving father’s death last year, she has suspected that there’s more to life than memorizing scripture.

Taking advantage of their move to a new town, Kate—to her devout mother’s horror—quits Holy Divine. She joins the cross-country team, wears shorts to public school, and even tries a traditional Christian church. As she struggles to come to terms with her father’s death and her mother’s unquestioning beliefs, Kate discovers there’s a big difference between religion and faith—and that the two don’t always go hand in hand.

About this title

About the Author

Beckie Weinheimer earned her M.F.A. in writing fromVermont College. She lives with her family in Leesburg,Virginia. This is her first book.

Reviews

Grade 7 Up—Having moved with her mom to Puffin Cove, ME, to live and work at her Great-Aunt Katherine's B & B, 16-year-old Kate has, in her own mind, already left the Church of the Holy Divine. But she hasn't yet told her mother, whose belief in the church is resolute. Kate's faith weakened following her parents' divorce when she was 10, and has further diminished since her father's unexpected death and her mother's cold refusal to have a funeral. As Kate makes new friends and shares new experiences, she begins to express her "conversion" away from the church to her shocked and angry mom. She experiences something of a crash course in the wide world that exists outside her mother's church's cloistered confines through her loving Aunt Katherine; Will, the outgoing young lobsterman she likes; Jamie, her X-C teammate; Richard, an enigmatic rich kid; and other members of the local church youth group led by the young, liberal Pastor Browning. Occasional swearing by Will and Richard is realistic. Subplots about homophobia and the teen's changing feelings about Will propel the action, but the real story is Kate's heartfelt search for beliefs in which she has confidence—discoveries requiring effort, courage, and strength, especially in the face of causing pain to her mother.—Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Junior High School, Iowa City, IA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Kate Andersen is back in her father's Maine hometown, living in his aunt's B and B, which her mother now manages. Her parents divorced because of her mother's faith and commitment to the Holy Divine Church, to which Kate also used to be devoted. But her father's death changed everything, and, now, in a new place, Kate is willing to explore things her church (and mother) have long forbidden: books, boys, and religious questions. This is Weinheimer's first novel, and she overdoes it: too many subplots and too many characters. It's particularly difficult to get a handle on Kate's mother. In an effort to make her multidimensional, Weinheimer has characterized her as both a dowdy religious fanatic and a competent, sometimes flirtatious businesswoman--and the two sides never mesh. Yet the book is strong when it focuses on Kate's questioning of religion. Although Weinheimer overuses 1 Corinthians 13 as a thread that runs throughout the book, the first time Kate reflects on looking at existence through a glass, darkly, it's quite moving. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0670061522
• ISBN 13: 9780670061525
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320