Sarah de Carvalho’s book about rescuing children from the streets in Brazilian cities is one I wanted to like but struggled to read. Brazil is near and dear to my heart, as it’s where I served briefly as a missionary and is my wife and children’s home country. It is also a nation to which I have long sensed a strong calling to serve in the name of Christ, and to which I hope to return in not too many years. With that said, here are my two main difficulties with this book.

First, it’s a question of style. I really think Sarah was trying to say too much in this book. She told how she came to believe in Christ and then went to Brazil after a period of time, explained how Happy Child International got started and skimmed through the development of this organization and many of the struggles they faced. So far, so good. What was already a swift retelling of events became even more difficult to grip when the author began giving background on not one or two of the children, but on several of them. As a reader I found it incredibly challenging to keep track of who was who. It may have made more sense for her to have created a composite story of the “typical” street kid (telling us that this was what she was doing), and then have provided brief real-life vignettes of young people she encountered and helped.

Second, the theological viewpoint of the author is very clearly neo-Pentecostal, and this shows up not only in brief asides but as a key component in the story. Of course, Sarah is simply recounting her experiences and what she believed moved events forward, so she’s only being honest. At the same time, for those of us who don’t share her exact beliefs, what she has to say can at times seem quaint and seemingly breathless to downright annoying. In general, it’s distracting. This is a hard point for me to convey, as I in no way want to take away from the good work she and her organization continue to do.

Despite my criticisms of the style and theological perspective of this book, I would still recommend it to anyone with an interest in Brazil and poverty issues there. It should not be at the top of your reading list, but certainly deserves 5th or 6th place. At only 242 pages you certainly won’t lose any considerable amount of time reading it, and will come away from it better informed.