Fire in the Heart: A Spiritual Guide for Teens (Chopra, Deepak)
Grade 6 Up–Chopra presents inspirational life lessons spoken in parables by a mysterious teacher who leads an unnamed narrator through a four-day retreat of self-discovery. With the guidance of Baba, the 15-year-old comes to know his true self by generating answers to four major questions: "Do I have a soul? How do wishes come true? What is the supreme force in the universe? How can I change the world?" The teen and Baba spend a day discussing each question; these four sections are divided into smaller lessons or chapters that end with the young man describing what he learned and how he has applied Baba's wisdom to his life. The didactic text demonstrates a cosmic connection between the soul and all things in deliberate, forced dialogue between the teen and his teacher, and the narrator's internal conversation. The prominent themes are consistent with those common to the genre: finding order in chaos, looking for the missing "something" in life, meaningful communication, and understanding and belief in what one cannot see. The book is rather like Antoine de Saint Exupéry'sLe Petit PrincemeetsChicken Soup for the Soul. The final section, "A Soul Alphabet," contains inspirational words and motivational prose: appreciation, beyond, communicate…. This nondenominational offering could serve as a textbook for a course on self-exploration, faith, or spiritual discovery.–Jodi Kearns, University of Akron, OHCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.