Vince Profett (copy)

Guess what, readers? In my spare time I like to read books and write book reviews. “Naw,” you say, shaking your head, “Say it isn’t so.” I know, hard to believe, but I’m being serious. The weekly articles I write are what we in the library biz like to call booktalks not reviews.

Booktalks shy away from being overly critical of a book or trying to match the author’s style. In a booktalk the presenter has the option of retelling a story or acting out a certain character’s personae. They may skip over plot and dance around characterization in order to provide an entertaining view of a book or group of books.

All this to say, I was handed a paperback last winter to review for the Mississippi Libraries; a journal published quarterly by the Mississippi Library Association. The paperback was written by Mississippi family man R. Tyler Scott. His biography says he was born in 1968, and reborn in 1975. This Mississippi based Christian series stars preteen, Vince Profett, and is aimed for Harry Potter readers.

This is a fast paced superhero fantasy, with Vince finding his power from above. I was handed Vince Profett and the Dead Man’s Bones to review and the following is my brief summary.

Vince Profett is an ordinary, almost-12-year-old Mississippi kid. Well, except for the summer he spends in the Middle East accompanying his BBC-reporter dad and archeologist-enthusiast mother. It is a little, white rabbit that changes everything in Vince’s life. He spies the creature as his mother finds a piece of pottery, and instead of joining the celebration, he follows the rabbit - an unusual rabbit which turns around to wink at him.

Once out of site of the camp, Vince falls through a hole in the desert floor and comes face to face with the rabbit, which morphs into Gabriel, one of God’s messenger angels. Gabriel asks the soon-to-be hero if he is “saved” although he knows the answer, having watched Vince’s baptism from afar. It is only through Vince’s Christianity that Gabriel extends an incredible offer: to touch Elisha’s bones and have the powers of all God’s disciples in the Bible.

Back in Mississippi, Vince is unsure he even possesses powers. His uneventful summer, except for being passed for the All-Stars baseball league and meeting his angel-designated mentor Sam Lofton, is void of his special blue light That is until evil sets out to destroy the Profett family and all future good deeds from Vince.

Vince Profett (copy)

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2007/11/vince-profett-copy.html