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Lightkeepers
Ten Girls Who Made a Difference
Would you like to make a difference? These ten girls grew up to do just that…Katherine Luther, Bethan Lloyd–Jones, Sabina Wurmbrand, Susanna Wesley, Ann Judson, Edith Schaeffer, Ruth Bell Graham, Monica of Thagaste, Susannah Spurgeon, Maria Taylor. Read this book and find out what God wants you to do.
160 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2002
19 people are currently reading
209 people want to read
About the author
Irene Howat
92 books34 followersIrene Howat is an award-winning author who has many titles, for adults and children, to her name. She is married to a retired minister and they have a grown up family. She is also a talented artist and now stays in Ayrshire, Scotland. She especially enjoys letters from children and replies to all of them!
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
April 6, 2022
The final entry into the girls' series and the final book in the entire series. The whole series was a joy to read and to review and to learn from. This entry had me slightly apprehensive that it would only be "the wife of" or "the mother of" great men. While they share those qualities among themselves, the author does a good job of highlighting them as individuals.
In this volume, ten girls which include Katherine Luther, Bethan Lloyd-Jones, Sabina Wurmbrand, Susanna Wesley, Ann Judson, Edith Schaeffer, Ruth Bell Graham, Monica of Thagaste, Susannah Spurgeon, and Maria Taylor follow a similar story pattern of about 15 pages each. The sections starts off with a childhood and family setting and move to either some early important events or through to teenage and college-age and then into adulthood of what they're known for. The stories include mostly fictional conversations so as to give young readers more than just facts to remember. The conversation are in the spirit of learning about the person. Each person also has a focus on their Christian faith and it usually inspires the conclusion of the story as a way to glorify God. At the end there is a "FACT" of the story expanded upon, a "KEYNOTE" that focuses on the aspect of the story to think about God, a "THINK" area in which a challenge question is presented for discussion, and a "PRAYER" section.
As stated above this looked like women who made a difference because their husbands or sons made a difference. While some of these might fall into this a little more, the women are shown coming alongside the men in their life. So someone like Monica of Thadsgate is the focus because of Augustine but that's also because what we know of her comes from her son and shows the impact mothers have. One of the best stories is Edith Schaeffer who seemed like just an amazing person who made L'Abri an even more special place. What this book maybe could have focused on a little more is actually showing an even closer connection to how great men are affected by the great women in their life. Someone like Susannah Spurgeon is known for her great love of her husband and supporting him with his consistent bouts with depression - there are other books that talk about this for later study.
This book was a nice surprise from what I thought it would be and that's true for what this whole series was. If you're looking to get your younger kids into Church history or even if you're an adult looking for some entries into who or when to study and read about further. Final Grade - A.
In this volume, ten girls which include Katherine Luther, Bethan Lloyd-Jones, Sabina Wurmbrand, Susanna Wesley, Ann Judson, Edith Schaeffer, Ruth Bell Graham, Monica of Thagaste, Susannah Spurgeon, and Maria Taylor follow a similar story pattern of about 15 pages each. The sections starts off with a childhood and family setting and move to either some early important events or through to teenage and college-age and then into adulthood of what they're known for. The stories include mostly fictional conversations so as to give young readers more than just facts to remember. The conversation are in the spirit of learning about the person. Each person also has a focus on their Christian faith and it usually inspires the conclusion of the story as a way to glorify God. At the end there is a "FACT" of the story expanded upon, a "KEYNOTE" that focuses on the aspect of the story to think about God, a "THINK" area in which a challenge question is presented for discussion, and a "PRAYER" section.
As stated above this looked like women who made a difference because their husbands or sons made a difference. While some of these might fall into this a little more, the women are shown coming alongside the men in their life. So someone like Monica of Thadsgate is the focus because of Augustine but that's also because what we know of her comes from her son and shows the impact mothers have. One of the best stories is Edith Schaeffer who seemed like just an amazing person who made L'Abri an even more special place. What this book maybe could have focused on a little more is actually showing an even closer connection to how great men are affected by the great women in their life. Someone like Susannah Spurgeon is known for her great love of her husband and supporting him with his consistent bouts with depression - there are other books that talk about this for later study.
This book was a nice surprise from what I thought it would be and that's true for what this whole series was. If you're looking to get your younger kids into Church history or even if you're an adult looking for some entries into who or when to study and read about further. Final Grade - A.
August 28, 2025
Interesting
April 24, 2015
I love biographies! Better yet, I love biographies that we can read as a family! This book is a compilation of ten short biographies about girls who have made a difference for God's glory. Not all of them are well known, in fact most of them are known because of other family members. However, their stories are of how God uses our everyday life to spread His fame. They make great bedtime reading as they are short but wonderfully uplifting reads.
September 17, 2025
These short stories are a wonderful tool for showing that great Christians were once children too. Use these stories during family worship time or keep them on the shelf for your children to have access to.
January 21, 2021
A great, encouraging non-fiction of Christian women who made a difference.
October 3, 2024
This is the fourth in the Ten Girls/Ten Boys series that we've read with our kids (reading half a chapter over breakfast each morning), and we've enjoyed them all so far. Overall they are an excellent way in to learning about Christians from the past. My hope is that they might also stir the imaginations of our kids, filling their minds with inspiring pictures of what the Christian life can look like.
November 12, 2024
Read with Hannah
April 16, 2018
My mum gave me this book for Christmas and I think it was the best Christmas present ever!!! The girls in it are so inspiring and have such good characters and are the kind of person we should be! I also got some of the other ones and it was a total good use of my time I even read one of them in on night!! I absolutely love them!!
September 8, 2014
This is supposed to be an inspirational book for young Christian girls. I did not find it that inspiring, however, because it seemed that the contributions of most of these women was in supporting their sons, fathers, and husbands. And while I realize that's definitely a contribution, I still felt cheated. It was like I was being told that my place is to support my husband in whatever Christian pursuits he does. (To be fair, these women DID do their part to make the world a better place, but it still felt unsatisfactory to me.)
November 2, 2021
Zero stars.
Terrible writing. Every story has vague time periods that are seriously redundant and serve no purpose.
The stories of devotion and Christianity are unconvincing and seem to wrap up just as quickly as they were mentioned.
The overall tone of the writing seems to be written to appeal to 10-11-year-old upper-middle-class European females. While this isn't too much of an issue it quickly becomes one. 'Maria's story is set in China and that was where I just lost it and stopped reading. It was a bland story filled with inauthentic details and overall seemed as if it had only been included in the book for what a white author considers 'cultural diversity but really comes off as treating people of color as 'exotic'.
It is unclear if this is biography fiction or just Christian fiction.
The prayers at the end of each chapter seem to be a copy-paste with a meaningful message that only slightly relates to each story.
The fact file is written in a way that makes you seriously doubt its validity. Here's an example: ' The Romans. In the ancient world Roman was the name given to the dominant people of the country we now call Italy. Many centuries before Christ's birth these people settled in a village called Rome beside the river Tiber. They gradually came to rule the whole of Italy and eventually, the empire became one of the greatest the world has ever seen.'
I understand that children are the target audience but ... My god, this was garbage.
Terrible writing. Every story has vague time periods that are seriously redundant and serve no purpose.
The stories of devotion and Christianity are unconvincing and seem to wrap up just as quickly as they were mentioned.
The overall tone of the writing seems to be written to appeal to 10-11-year-old upper-middle-class European females. While this isn't too much of an issue it quickly becomes one. 'Maria's story is set in China and that was where I just lost it and stopped reading. It was a bland story filled with inauthentic details and overall seemed as if it had only been included in the book for what a white author considers 'cultural diversity but really comes off as treating people of color as 'exotic'.
It is unclear if this is biography fiction or just Christian fiction.
The prayers at the end of each chapter seem to be a copy-paste with a meaningful message that only slightly relates to each story.
The fact file is written in a way that makes you seriously doubt its validity. Here's an example: ' The Romans. In the ancient world Roman was the name given to the dominant people of the country we now call Italy. Many centuries before Christ's birth these people settled in a village called Rome beside the river Tiber. They gradually came to rule the whole of Italy and eventually, the empire became one of the greatest the world has ever seen.'
I understand that children are the target audience but ... My god, this was garbage.
March 3, 2023
Number of pages: 150
Genre: Non-fiction Missionary Biographies
Series: Ten Girls Series (order is unimportant)
Age recommendation: 6-12
Summary: Each book in the series gives a short biography of ten different Christian ‘girls’ who used their lives for God. Ten Girls Who Made a Difference tells the stories of Monica of Thagaste, Katherine Luther, Susanna Wesley, Ann Judson, Maria Taylor, Susannah Spurgeon, Bethan Lloyd–Jones, Edith Schaeffer, Sabina Wurmbrand, and Ruth Bell Graham.
My thoughts: Since this whole series is pretty similar, I’m just going to review the series all together. When I was in elementary school this was one of my favourite missionary series. I thought it was cool what all the girls were able to accomplish. I especially liked reading about the girls that were married to very famous preachers because often we don’t see both sides of the story.
My only criticisms of these are that they’re kind of short (which is the point to make them easier for younger girls to read), and I know that the writing isn’t very good (though I mostly ignore it and still enjoy it the way I did when I was 8; they bring back so many good memories for me😊). Overall, I loved all these stories and the different women I got to learn about. I would definitely recommend this series to young girls.
My personal rating: 5/5 stars.
Link to blog: https://karinaschristianreads.wordpre...
Genre: Non-fiction Missionary Biographies
Series: Ten Girls Series (order is unimportant)
Age recommendation: 6-12
Summary: Each book in the series gives a short biography of ten different Christian ‘girls’ who used their lives for God. Ten Girls Who Made a Difference tells the stories of Monica of Thagaste, Katherine Luther, Susanna Wesley, Ann Judson, Maria Taylor, Susannah Spurgeon, Bethan Lloyd–Jones, Edith Schaeffer, Sabina Wurmbrand, and Ruth Bell Graham.
My thoughts: Since this whole series is pretty similar, I’m just going to review the series all together. When I was in elementary school this was one of my favourite missionary series. I thought it was cool what all the girls were able to accomplish. I especially liked reading about the girls that were married to very famous preachers because often we don’t see both sides of the story.
My only criticisms of these are that they’re kind of short (which is the point to make them easier for younger girls to read), and I know that the writing isn’t very good (though I mostly ignore it and still enjoy it the way I did when I was 8; they bring back so many good memories for me😊). Overall, I loved all these stories and the different women I got to learn about. I would definitely recommend this series to young girls.
My personal rating: 5/5 stars.
Link to blog: https://karinaschristianreads.wordpre...
April 18, 2020
A very nice complication of short biographies of girls/women who have played a part in history by their marriage to their famous husband (i.e. Katherine von Bora to Martin Luther) or being the mother of their famous son (i.e. Monica of Thagaste mother of Augustine). The author does a fine job emphasizing that salvation is by faith in Jesus death on the cross for our sins and not by any good things we do. At the end of each chapter is a section with a fun fact about the time period, a keynote, something to think about and lastly, a short prayer. This is a great way to encourage a child’s love of learning and their thinking. The prayer at the end encourages how to love God and others better by what they have read.
I read this aloud to my five year old who really enjoys nonfiction. Some of the themes were too deep or weighty for our five year- like drunkenness or WWII. I either skipped over these heavier topics and ones like them completely (to be learned later) or gave a gentle explanation. The book does say on the back that it is intended as a read aloud for ages 7-8 and as a read-alone ages 8-12. We will probably read it again later at a more suitable age. I enjoyed reading it as the parent.
I read this aloud to my five year old who really enjoys nonfiction. Some of the themes were too deep or weighty for our five year- like drunkenness or WWII. I either skipped over these heavier topics and ones like them completely (to be learned later) or gave a gentle explanation. The book does say on the back that it is intended as a read aloud for ages 7-8 and as a read-alone ages 8-12. We will probably read it again later at a more suitable age. I enjoyed reading it as the parent.
November 29, 2018
We have the boxed set of these books. I love biographies and these are just enough information for little learners/listeners. This one has: Katherine Luther, Bethan Lloyd-Jones, Sabina Wurmbrand, Susanna Wesley, Ann Judson, Edith schaeffer, Ruth Bell Graham, Monica of Thagaste, Susannah Spurgeon, and Maria Taylor.
owned
March 30, 2023We used this for our “morning time” reading. One complaint, I find the comic-style font hard to read! But otherwise, it’s good to learn the history behind women of faith and their impact throughout history.
October 12, 2019
These are great little biographies we’ve been reading to the kids at night. Each one takes about 15 minutes to read. Our girls loved them.
April 8, 2021
Would be a great book for older elementary students to read or read aloud for younger children
June 5, 2021
very inspirational!! i wanna read the other books too :)
November 8, 2022
I don't really have much to say about this book :)
It was short, very easy to read, a nice way to involve God into a condensed story.
It describes 10 girls and the life of each one of them, with short sequences from their childhood, teens and life after marriage.
(Only 4 stars because I really liked the book, but it was nothing revolutionary for me, mainly because I already knew half of the stories from my grandma lol)
P.S.: i'd recommend it to kids!
I'm sure they would like the captivating way Irene Howat presented the lives of the 10 girls!
(But adults cand easily enjoy it too!)
It was short, very easy to read, a nice way to involve God into a condensed story.
It describes 10 girls and the life of each one of them, with short sequences from their childhood, teens and life after marriage.
(Only 4 stars because I really liked the book, but it was nothing revolutionary for me, mainly because I already knew half of the stories from my grandma lol)
P.S.: i'd recommend it to kids!
I'm sure they would like the captivating way Irene Howat presented the lives of the 10 girls!
(But adults cand easily enjoy it too!)
March 21, 2013
I've read the whole series and it is amazing how strong these women are. I'm quite a history nerd and I found these books fitted perfectly into my the history I knew.
September 26, 2013
My favorite girl was...Bethan Lloyd -Jones met a doctor and then helped to heal peoples souls;
August 29, 2016
It wasn't what I expected it to be, but I really did like it.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews