Left Behind >The Kids<

This is where it all started for me. I had always been a somewhat avid reader as I was growing up. I am told that I began reading quite early. But I do not ever remember having a great love for reading until I came across this book. As I stated in a previous post about the Left Behind series, my grandmother began this craze in our family. And it was with this book that I began reading nonstop. I have not slowed down since.

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The Vanishings was the first of the 40 book series known as Left Behind >The Kids<. It began with Judd Thompson Jr., Vicki Byrne, Lionel Washington, and Ryan Daley. These were four teenagers who woke up to a great catastrophe. Judd was running away from home, Vicki was returning from a late night party, Lionel found no one at home, and Ryan heard of his parents deaths that next morning (not because of the Rapture). Through various connections, they all ended up at New Hope Village Church where they met Bruce Barnes (a character from the adult series). From there, the drama unfolded. The kids formed a close group in order to watch after one another. They began school several months later and took their new faith to the hallways. As more natural disaster plagued the world, the small group began to grow, and more kids were coming to know Jesus. But along the way, there were deaths. In book 13, the most tragic death of the series occurred, putting a 12 year old kid to the point of tears as he read about the death of a young character from the book.

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Throughout the series, the kids were split up across the world. They had to face the problems of being a teenager as they lived through the most tragic period the world had ever seen. They made friends, lost friends, and were separated from friends for extended periods of time. But through it all, they expressed their faith and dependence on Jesus Christ. They always looked forward to the day that He would return and win the battle of Armageddon.

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It is hard for me to recommend these books to my readers because of your age. If you were 5-7 years younger I would encourage you to go out and read these books. Anyone from 10-16 would enjoy these books. But if you had not grown up with them, then it would be hard to start them after about 16. I began reading them at 9 or 10. They did not end until my junior or senior year of high school. I could not quit what I had started as a young kid, so I continued to read them. But our kids would love these books. This will definitely be one series that I will one day encourage my kids to read.

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Matt