Coaltown Jesus

Name: Coaltown Jesus
Brand: Brilliance Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: Ron Koertge
ISBN: 9781480519008

Author: Ron Koertge

Narrator: Nick Podehl

Unabridged: 1 hr 17 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Candlewick on Brilliance Audio

Published: 10/08/2013

Categories: Young Adult Fiction, Social Themes, Religious Fiction

Synopsis

“I would have been here sooner, but traffic on I-55 was awful.”Walker shouldn’t be so surprised to find Jesus standing in the middle of his bedroom. After all, he prayed for whoever was up there to help his mom, who hasn’t stopped crying since Noah died, two months ago. But since when have prayers actually been answered? And since when has Jesus been so...irreverent?As astounding as Jesus’ sudden appearance is, it’s going to take more than divine intervention for Walker to come to terms with his brother’s death. Why would God take seventeen-year-old Noah when half of the residents in his mom’s nursing home are waiting to die? And why would he send Jesus to Coaltown, Illinois, to pick up the pieces? If he really wanted to help, why couldn’t he have kept Noah from dying?In a spare, weighty, and often humorous text, renowned poet Ron Koertge tackles some of life’s biggest questions—and humanizes the savior in a way that highlights the divinity in all of us.

About Ron Koertge

Ron Koertge is the author of many award-winning novels, including Stoner & Spaz and its sequel, Now Playing: Stoner & Spaz II; Shakespeare Bats Cleanup; Strays; Deadville; Margaux with an X; The Brimstone Journals; The Arizona Kid; and Lies, Knives, and Girls in Red Dresses, a Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book of the Year. A two-time winner of the PEN USA Literary Award for Children’s Literature, Ron Koertge lives in South Pasadena, California.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Angela on March 24, 2015

This story so reminds me of what my own personal relationship with Jesus is like. Pure. Simple. Honest. It's hard to take Him at His word when our emotions, fears and doubts run interference. Walker finally learned an important lesson. Jesus may not answer prayers the way we want him to, but He does......more

Goodreads review by Richie on September 27, 2013

Richie's Picks: COALTOWN JESUS by Ron Koertge, Candlewick, October 2013, 128p., ISBN: 978-0-7636-6228-3 "Never been a sinner, I've never sinned I've got a friend in Jesus So you know that when I die He's gonna set me up with the Spirit in the sky" -- Norman Greenbaum (1969) "'So Are You Going to Fix My......more

Goodreads review by Peggy on February 17, 2014

Walker is 14 years old. Just two months earlier, his 17 year old brother Noah succumbed to a drug addiction. Both Walker and his single mom are struggling to come to terms with Noah's death. His mother cries every day and one night Walker prays that if God is up there, will he please help her. When......more

Goodreads review by Terry on October 25, 2013

A 120-page verse novel that packs a solid punch, though not a knock-out. The fourteen-year-old protagonist, Walker, is grieving for Noah, his older brother who died too young but had also made life hard on their single mom. Then Jesus appears. Normally, this wouldn't be a set-up for my kind of story,......more