Hold On, Jessica, Dont Let Go
by Deanna Hessedal Tiddle
Category: Juvenile Fiction

FRED HARRIS gives a touching story of family and community. Through his parents, he shows us gifted Christian workers, who willingly faced enormous sacrifices for the Christian cause in early 20th century China. Harris, the Arabic Scholar's Son, offers us a warm look at a family dedicated to living out the call to make disciples for Jesus Christ, even when it meant years of separation from children and those at home. The letters are a treasure. His mother shares charming and tender accounts of daily struggles, separation and homesickness. His father's writing helps us see the dedication and difficulty of work with other cultures. What we are given in this book, also, is the story of a young boy becoming a young man. Harris allows us to follow his young life in China birth in a troubled year, early life with his parents, captured by pirates on the way to school, community life at Chefoo, Japanese internment camp, repatriation to America through troubled wartime seas and reunion after years of separation. "All we read here offers testimony to the faith of the Reverend Frederic G. Harris and the value he places on family his own and all of God's children." -- Barry Halden, teacher and editor