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~ How Attention To The Insignificant Can Change The Significant ~

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The Importance of LITTLE Things in Life ~ "The Penny"

By Joyce Meyer (Her first novel, written with Deborah Bedford)
+ Details a fourteen-year-old's journey from abuse and despair to forgiveness, confidence and passion for Jesus.

- The book is said to have been inspired by the author's own abused childhood.

• Paperback: 256 pages RRP £6.99
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (18 Oct 2007)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 0340943874
• ISBN-13: 978-0340943878

I'm not sure when I was first aware of Joyce Meyer, the author of this little book. I know my daughter has often had a CD of inspirational Bible Teaching on in the car when she has picked me up to go places.

Sometimes she turns it off, and sometimes she asks if I mind her listening to Joyce Meyer, as she really, really feels the need to focus her spirit, soul and mind. Unless I am trying to communicate with her myself, I rarely object, as Joyce Meyer is one person who is really positive and focused, and whose life seems to have a real balance between the physical and the spiritual. In the introduction to her book Look Great Feel Great 12 Keys to Enjoying a Healthy Life Now , she discusses her abused childhood and self rejection, and how God called her into ministry helping people in 1976 when she was thirty-three years old. She is now an international Bible teacher, the author of more than 70 inspirational books, audio teachings, video library; does regular Enjoying Everyday Life ® radio and television broadcasts heard around the world, and is a sought after conference speaker. When I checked on Amazon.co.uk for books written by her, there were 446 results, including Approval Addiction , In Pursuit of Peace , Battlefield of the Mind . . . many books being available in more than one language, and in different formats, as well as audio and visual media being available.
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Joyce Meyer has a website, and sends a regular magazine through the post (on subscription?) which I have seen once or twice. I bought Look Great Feel Great 12 Keys to Enjoying a Healthy Life Now as a gift for my daughter when it was published in 2006 (and it is probably the only other book by Joyce Meyer I have started to read).

The Penny

I walked into the local Public library and saw the current selection of paper back fiction books the library staff had set out to attract borrowers on the 14th August 2009.

Among them was a book with the picture of a little girl bending over to pick up a penny from the pavement. What caught my eye, however, was the name of the Author.
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JOYCE MEYER NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR
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I hadn't realised that she had written anything besides the Inspirational, Spiritual Warfare, and Exhortational books about which my daughter has been raving for quite a few years now. I picked up the book, thinking, "Surely, this is some other person with the same name."
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But on the back of the book was a small picture of the author, and a little blurb saying that she had been described as one of the world's most influential women. As I read the back cover, "A NOVEL INSPIRED BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR'S OWN CHILDHOOD A captivating tale of hope and forgiveness, Jenny Blake's story shows that every life has immeasurable value." I felt compelled to check this book out of the library and read it for myself. I remembered my daughter once telling me that Joyce had been sexually and physically abused by her father and had learned to forgive him, but that she didn't dwell on it and had usually just mentioned it in passing, so that people could understand that no matter what happened to you in life, you didn't have to wallow in self-pity but could move on. That forgiveness was the key to living without bitterness and without aches and pains normally associated with stress and stressful living. I wondered what was the significance of the title . . . THE PENNY and decided that this was a book I wanted to read.
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It is dedicated: " To those who long to come out of dark places. To those who yearn to find the One who is trustworthy. "

The story is narrated by Jenny Blake in the first person, and almost everything you are reading is told purely from her perspective; where you see another person's point of view, it is when they are talking to Jenny, and when she is describing their conversations and actions. When you read the book, though, you are being drawn into her life, into that hot summer in St Louis, Missouri (on the Mississippi River) where the pavement is so hot you could fry an egg (and the press photographers took pictures every July to demonstrate it!), and Grace Kelly was regularly the leading lady at the cinema, before she caught the eye of Prince Rainier of Monaco. The hot pavements are the first thing she remembers; the second thing she remembers is "the summer of the penny."
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The Plot

A fourteen-year old Jenny is on her way with her big sister to the cinema to get away from their abusive father on a very hot June evening in 1955 when she spots a penny melted into the road and goes back to pick it up. This starts a chain reaction which results in a robbery at the local jewellery store being foiled, and that night she is offered a job by the owner, a spinster lady who always wears white gloves and is immaculately dressed. They both hide secrets, but their working relationship as it develops helps them find healing from their past and the courage to face the future.
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Characters

Jenny Blake

A fourteen year old girl with guilty secrets, who can never let anyone get close in case her father abuses them as well. Her seventeen year old (nearly eighteen) sister is about to leave home to go to secretarial school. Her sister is obsessed with the movie star Grace Kelly (who meets Prince Rainier of Monaco that summer) and they go to watch all her films at the air conditioned cinema.

Miss Opal Shaw

The owner of Shaw Jewellers who recognises in Jenny a kindred spirit and offers her a job at her store. She wants to show her God's unconditional love through her acceptance and patience as Jenny struggles with the upheavals in her life.

The Crockett Family

Aurelia Crockett is one of the 'coloured' children being bused across St Louis to attend the same school as Jenny in the enforced "Integration" ~ they share some of the same teachers but are really still taught separately with the coloured children in porta-cabins. She is about the only person Jenny trusts. She lives with her dad, Eddie Crockett (a metal press worker who plays a fine trumpet in a group on the Mississippi River Steamboat at weekends), her Aunt Maureen and two boy cousins, Darnell and Garland. They live in the 'Coloured' area of town, and attend the Antioch Baptist Church every Sunday. Garland is nearly five, and will start school in September.

Mr Lancaster, School Headmaster

The integration of the schools has been forced on them but it doesn't mean that he likes it. He would have liked the three sections of town, the Italians, the Coloureds, and Whites to have remained totally separate. He doesn't think it is appropriate but there are far worse things.
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RECURRING THEMES

Pennies ~ signifying God's love, grace, forgiveness and acceptance.

After the first instance, more pennies come Jenny's way. She starts sharing them with others, trying to give encouragement in little ways to people in need she meets. When she feels at her lowest, pennies remind her of hope.

Eddie Crockett's Mellow trumpet playing

This is a very important part of his life and his family's and it could have been his full-time work if he couldn't have got more money to support his family at the metal press factory.

Her father's anger, making her feel worthless

Her father never felt accepted by his own father, and always had to be the one who was in control and ownership. Until she was able to break free of his controlling spirit and power over her she would never be free. She would have to learn to forgive before it was too late.
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ANALYSIS

I was slightly suspicious of this book before I read it as I have seen many 'autobiographical' books about people who claim to have been abused, and go into such horrific details, and in every repetition making it more and more outlandish, while all the time making it clear to the reader that in no way had they ever done anything to deserve such atrocities ~ a case in point being the stories of Dave Pelzer, where each of the three volumes in "My Story" is about twice as long as the one before, adding more and more contradictory details until you just want to say to him, "Just who do you think you are kidding with all that!" Personally, I feel that you can always concentrate on whatever you want to; if you live a life of self-pity and self-centeredness, you will always be unhappy; if you look for ways to help others instead of wallowing in your wretchedness, there will always be someone worse off than yourself.
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The amazing thing about this book was how real it was, despite the author's disclaimer on the copyright page: "This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental." The child feels guilty herself because of what her father has done to her, rather than justifying herself; years of being told she is worthless make her feel worthless, and it takes The Penny which she finds and polishes and keeps, and all the other pennies which follow, which she sees as a sign from God, to help her to see that she has worth in some people's eyes and in God's eyes.
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I never really felt the author decending into mawkish self-pity; I wanted to read what came next. I took a while to get into the story, due to the meandering about a bit in her initial chapter, but once the action started properly, I understood the way she felt to some extent. The author still lives in St Louis, with her husband Dave Meyer (and they have four grown children) so, she knows well the St Louis about which she has built her story. I was only four when these events would have been happening, but I well remember the fuss in the late fifties and sixties when bus loads of Negro children were brought from the areas in which they lived to 'integrate' them with the white children, with mixed success. My 'inner city' high school in Rochester, New York was one of the few without 'race tension' in the sixties; our classes were mixed and people were treated with respect whatever their nationality; and we had a fair mixture as well! But I could relate to the struggles Jenny went through, because to some extent I had seen some of it myself.
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As a first novel, there are a few weak areas; sometimes the time-frame seems inconsistent; but then, school breaks up for the summer in the USA in June, and doesn't resume until after "Labor Day" (first Monday after the first Sunday in September) so there are ten weeks or so of summer vacation from school, which can seem to stretch out forever. The story moves on throughout the following year; there is also an epilogue many years later. I am not sure how I would have reacted myself in some of the situations; probably not in the same way as Jenny or her sister Jean or her Mama. But it is a truth that we need to understand our own value and not put up with anything less than the value and importance God puts on our lives. Sometimes it can get a little 'preachy' but then, I wouldn't expect anything else from this author.

Availability and Prices

I borrowed the book from the Public Library. I don't know if I would buy it for myself as I have so many books, and although I have read it several times, including all the way through again yesterday before writing my final conclusions, I am not sure I want to own it for myself. The Paperback RRP is £6.99 but it is available as a Hardback book, an abridged Audio CD, an abridged Audio download and a Large Print Hardback book at varying prices both new and second hand ranging from £1.46 upwards to £17.61 for the abridged audiobook.
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Recommended for 15+

It deals with some uncomfortable subjects regarding sexual abuse, and care should be taken before allowing younger teens to read. Although most is implied rather than explicit, it is not a light read. I was in tears again yesterday while re-reading it in places, despite knowing what I was about to read.

Thanks for Reading

© October ~ 2009 ~ ♥ Jesi ♥

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A second novel, Any Minute also co-written with Deborah Bedford was published on 9th July 2009. I'll probably look out for that one too.
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