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    Insight
    Insight
    Insight
    Audiobook5 hours

    Insight

    Written by Diana Greenwood and Emily Janice Card

    Narrated by Emily Janice Card

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Fourteen-year-old Elvira Witsil lives in a remote area of Wisconsin with her mother, Connie, who acknowledges Elvira only when chores need doing; her grandma, a cantankerous woman who can’t hold her tongue; and her baby sister, Jessie — who, the family discovers, is a seer. Along with the burdens of a difficult family, Elvira also bears a daunting secret — she encouraged her father to enlist in WWII. Ever since he was declared missing in action, Elvira has felt responsible for his presumed death. But Jessie also carries a secret about the father she never met — a secret so powerful that when her mother, Connie, learns of it, she sends the family on a journey to California with a traveling preacher. This powerful teen manuscript tells the story of a family’s journey toward forgiveness and a young woman’s journey toward faith
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherZonderkidz
    Release dateApr 19, 2011
    ISBN9780310426660
    Author

    Diana Greenwood

    Diana Greenwood grew up with the Bobbsey Twins, Laura Ingalls, Huck and Tom, the Hardy Boys, Jo, Francie Nolan, and Oliver Twist. She tried to duplicate the adventures of her favorite characters by writing poems, stories, and scripts for summer performances in her backyard. Today, she still has those childhood editions on her bookshelf and spends her days writing stories of young people embarking on life-changing journeys. Diana makes her home in the Napa Valley, where she watches college football, volunteers at her church, and continues to devour books.

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    Reviews for Insight

    4.5/5

    4 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Elvira Witsil is a fourteen year old girl with normal family problems. Her father was an alcoholic who ran off and enlisted in the war when she was small and is never heard from again. She lives in a small house with a mother who all but ignores her, her cranky grandmother and her new baby sister who seems to have a strange ability. Elvira is left to care for her sister, who doesn’t speak until she is four and even then only a few words. But these are words that little Jessie has never heard before. When it becomes clear that she is a “seer” and her gift brings up complicated questions about long-kept family secrets, they are forced to leave their home on long journey. They travel with a preacher who agrees to take them as far as California if they help him at a revival. Along the way, Elvira discovers that her mother intends to use Jessie as an “attraction” and ask for money in return.This wasn’t a very long book, only 224 pages so I read it in a couple hours. It is told from Elvira’s point-of-view and I felt as though I really empathized with her. She struggles with thoughts and feelings that go through every preteen and teenagers mind. I’ve been there. It’s hard being a kid. Especially when it feels like no one is listening or cares. Elvira’s situation is like anyone else’s but also unique in that she has a little sister who can see things before they happen. A child prophet if you will. Her mother ignores her but expects her to care for Jessie because it’s too much for her to handle. That’s a lot of responsibility for a twelve-fourteen year old to take on. Not to mention the guilt of her father leaving. The journey they take is one of self-discovery, faith, forgiveness, healing and God’s love. But it isn’t an easy one. I would recommend this book for anyone 10 and up. Very poignant.I received this book for free from Zondervan Publishing Group in exchange for this review.
    • 5/5
      I enjoyed this book a lot.The cover of this book doesn’t really have anything to do with the story-my own opinion-. It suggest a paranormal one, while actually even if there is some supernatural things in the book, it doesn’t deal mostly in it. But I loved the cover just as well. It’s eye-catching and interesting.This book is about self-discovery, love and loss, life and death, acceptance and understanding, past and future, hope and faith, forgiveness, healing and God's love. This is a complete journey into the lives of ordinary people who found themselves and God along the way.With the author’s writing, I found myself in the road in 1940’s with the main character Elvira. I really empathized with her. I cried and laughed along, carried and felt the guilt she have over her father’s presumed dead. I also felt her mother’s neglect and meanness towards her. I struggled with her in her transformation toward a woman of faith.Ms. Greenwood brought her story to real life and inspires readers like me a lot. Her characters are developed well-enough that they’d stay in the reader’s hearts even long after reading Insight.This book wonderfully stated the thoughts and feelings every teen and to-be-teen experienced. It’s a hard thing turning from a child to a teen, but it’s much harder when there’s no one to guide you, especially when you needed the most your parents.Insight is a great reminder, that we don’t only have problems to worry about. We have blessings and every little thing we should be thankful for. Faith and the questions that comes along with it are detailed without really making the reader uncomfortable with the religion-subtext.All in all, Insight is a fast-read, all-pack book I would recommend to kids, teens and adults 9 and above. INSPIRING. Highly Recommended. :)
    • 4/5
      I won a ARC copy of Insight from the First Reads program on November 20 2011 and received my copy on December 17 2011. Due to my college schedule I have not been able to get much pleasure reading in as you can tell by my updates. However, every time I read a bit of this book I just wanted more, and last night I picked up where I left off on page 43 and read straight through the book.I really enjoyed this book.While the cover art and the tag line, "What if you could see things before they happened?" lead you believe the book is about the paranormal, that is not quite the case. The story is about a young girl, Elvira, in the post war 1940s. The book opens with Elvira's mother giving birth. We soon learn that Elvira lives with her grandmother and mother who are always at odds with each other and her little sister Jesse, who never speaks. Elvira's father went missing in action in the war. The story is about this dysfunctional family and how Jesse brings about a big change in their lives when she finally begins to say random words at four years old.It is a coming of age story (of sorts) not only for Elvira, but for her mother an grandmother as well.The book had a religious/spiritual theme as you get to the end, but it was in no way preachy or in your face. All in all it was a beautifully told story and I would recommend it to my friends and family.
    • 5/5
      This was an unexpected surprise, a blend of hardscrabble, magical realism and spirituality. All three came together in a very satisfying way. During the journey, Elvira not only must grow up, but develop far more insight into her mom, grandmother and her little sister. Neat ending, too.