Seeing Jesus

Winner of three 2016 Human Relations Indie Book Awards: Young Adult Pre-Teen/Teen Human RelationsYoung Adult Family Human RelationsYoung Adult Self-EsteemAn unlikely friendship blossoms into a community...Eighth grader Sara Love's parents transplanted her from Austin to the tiny town of Pollen, Texas, where she stands out like a blackhead on a bright red nose. Her father expects her to get along with the Queen Bee Jana Payne, the mayor's daughter, and the rest of her hive because his...
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Winner of three 2016 Human Relations Indie Book Awards: Young Adult Pre-Teen/Teen Human RelationsYoung Adult Family Human RelationsYoung Adult Self-EsteemAn unlikely friendship blossoms into a community...Eighth grader Sara Love's parents transplanted her from Austin to the tiny town of Pollen, Texas, where she stands out like a blackhead on a bright red nose. Her father expects her to get along with the Queen Bee Jana Payne, the mayor's daughter, and the rest of her hive because his business depends on the mayor's approval. The hive wants nothing to do with Sara, nor does class clown Delbert Thrash, or any of the other kids for that matter.Sara makes friends with Mr. Fisher, a homeless man, who no one else can see. Mr. Fisher tells Sara wonderful stories, stories that not only entertain her but help her discover resources within herself that allow her to cope with her loneliness and frustration.Her parents aren't happy to learn about Mr. Fisher, however, and just when Sara is cast to narrate the Christmas play her classmates learn about Sara's imaginary friend, too. Sara discovers every dark cloud has even darker clouds pushing past, only when she turns to Mr. Fisher for help, he vanishes.Can Sarah use Mr. Fisher's lessons to rise to the occasion, gain her family and friends' acceptance, not to mention save her father's job and the Christmas play?===================Author Phillip T. Stephens will release Seeing Jesus in two versions. This, the Young Adult version, and the unabridged version for adult readers. In addition to a humorous, coming of age story, suitable for Christmas reading, Seeing Jesus introduces young readers to questions of spirituality and philosophy they might not otherwise find the opportinity to explore. Without being doctrinaire, Seeing Jesus provides readers a chance to address questions they will confront in the news, their classes and professional lives.Stephens, a professional educator and writer who developed a number of innovative classroom programs for exceptional and at-risk youth, drew on his own experiences as a minister's son being frequently moved to new schools as well as those of his students to write Seeing Jesus.