Jesus Land

Jesus Land: a Memoir
by Julia Scheeres
Counterpoint
New York
2005
ISBN: 1582433380

Plot Summary:
Julia is a young white girl living with her extremely religious parents in rural Indiana. She has two black adopted brothers. The family's fundamentalism and the boys' blackness are the source of constant pain for the siblings at school. Incessant racism surrounds them always. When Julia and the younger David start fighting back they are shipped to a religious boot camp in the Dominican Republic. Nothing is ever the same forever afterwards.
Critical Evaluation:
A searingly honest and emotionally painful autobiography that flinches away from nothing. Every childhood stone is unturned, as Julia rehashes she and David's painful abandonment, and how it led to the pain she now must still confront daily. A beautifully written book, so successfully written I couldn't wait to finish it and put it away forever.
Reader's Annotation:
"Sinners go to: Hell./Rightchuss go to: Heaven./The end is neer: Repent./This here is: Jesus Land."
Genre:
Autobiography
Reader Level/Interest Age:
ALA adult crossover book.
Author Info:
Julia Scheeres is an award-winning journalist living in San Francisco. Jesus Land is her first book.
Booktalking Ideas:
*Why is Julia and David so close?
*How do their parents justify the children's expulsion to the Jesus camp?
*Has Julia recovered from her childhood traumas?
Challenge Issues:
Religious guardians might be offended (i.e. defensive) regarding the book's themes and the religious experiences recounted. However, it is a non-sensationalized, critically acclaimed, personal account of Julia and David's experiences, eschewing explicitness for heartbreak.
Why Include?:
I had read it some time ago and it broke my heart. I thought it would make for a diverse addition to my otherwise fiction-obsessed blog.