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Lightkeepers
Ten Boys Who Didn't Give In: Inspiring stories of martyrs
These ten boys grew up in hard times throughout history to become men who didn’t give in to the pressure against their faith. Living as a Christian was difficult, but they chose to do the right thing instead of the easy thing. In a world where we give in too easily, be inspired by the true stories of those who didn’t! Includes the stories of Nate Saint, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Thomas Cranmer, Polycarp, with the biographies of other great heroes of the faith.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
12 people are currently reading
158 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 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 9, 2022
The second entry into the series is just as good as the first. Although the subject matter maybe a bit too much for younger readers.
In this volume, ten boys which include Polycarp, Alban, Sir John Oldcastle, Thomas Cranmer, George Wishart, James Chalmers, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Nate Saint, Ivan Moiseyev, Graham Staines 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.
It is probably best for young readers to read alongside a parent as the subheading is not included on the book cover but is listed online. The topics all cover people who were martyred and involve some details of death, cannibalism, and torture. Mind you there isn't graphic description and I don't have a negative review about that as I believe stories like these are very important but I think the warning is important. Either way, the series does capture people who were willing to die for their faith and the questions at the end cover that fairly well. There's deeper conversations to be had within the people covered. The childhood stories don't flow into the climax of the story as much as the first book does but the pattern is important for the narrative and to invest young readers into.
Another great entry into the series that allows for conversations to take place for a number of people including first-world Christians to get a sense of what holding to their faith sometimes requires, those who desire to be missionaries and the mindset one might have to have, and those who support missionaries with prayer and money and what they might have to go through. This series really does a good job of showing us why Church history is so important to study and learn from. Final Grade - A
In this volume, ten boys which include Polycarp, Alban, Sir John Oldcastle, Thomas Cranmer, George Wishart, James Chalmers, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Nate Saint, Ivan Moiseyev, Graham Staines 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.
It is probably best for young readers to read alongside a parent as the subheading is not included on the book cover but is listed online. The topics all cover people who were martyred and involve some details of death, cannibalism, and torture. Mind you there isn't graphic description and I don't have a negative review about that as I believe stories like these are very important but I think the warning is important. Either way, the series does capture people who were willing to die for their faith and the questions at the end cover that fairly well. There's deeper conversations to be had within the people covered. The childhood stories don't flow into the climax of the story as much as the first book does but the pattern is important for the narrative and to invest young readers into.
Another great entry into the series that allows for conversations to take place for a number of people including first-world Christians to get a sense of what holding to their faith sometimes requires, those who desire to be missionaries and the mindset one might have to have, and those who support missionaries with prayer and money and what they might have to go through. This series really does a good job of showing us why Church history is so important to study and learn from. Final Grade - A
May 5, 2021
Read the chapter about Vanya to a 6 year old boy and 3 year old boy. They enjoyed the story. It was a great age-appropriate read for our week learning about the USSR, Soviet Russia, and the rise of Soviet Communism. For educators using Classical Conversations curriculum, fits well with Cycle 3 week 19 History.
April 30, 2024
Number of pages: around 150 pages per book
Genre: Non-fiction, Missionary Biographies
Series: I combined all reviews for this series into one. The books are: Ten Boys Who Changed the World, Ten Boys Who Used Their Talents, Ten Boys Who Made History, Ten Boys Who Didn’t Give In, and Ten Boys Who Made a Difference.
Age recommendation: 6-12 *Note* Ten Boys Who Didn’t Give In is about martyrs so it might be better for older elementary school children (maybe 10-12).
Summary: Each book gives a short biography of ten different Christian ‘boys’ who used their lives for God.
Ten Boys Who Changed the World: Brother Andrew; John Newton; Billy Graham; Eric Liddell; William Carey; David Livingstone; Nicky Cruz; Adoniram Judson; George Muller; and Luis Palau.
Ten Boys Who Used Their Talents: Wilfred Grenfell; C.S. Lewis; James Clerk Maxwell; Ghillean Prance; Paul Brand; Johann Sebastian Bach; Samuel Morse; George Washington Carver; C.T. Studd; and John Bunyan.
Ten Boys Who Made History: Samuel Rutherford; John Owen; Jonathan Edwards; George Whitefield; Robert Murray McCheyne; Dwight L. Moody; Billy Sunday; Charles H. Spurgeon; Aiden W. Tozer; and Martyn Lloyd–Jones.
Ten Boys Who Didn’t Give In: Polycarp; Alban; Sir John Oldcastle; Thomas Cranmer; George Wishart; James Chalmers’ Dietrich Bonhoeffer; Nate Saint; Ivan Moiseyev; and Graham Staines.
Ten Boys Who Made a Difference: Augustine of Hippo; Jan Hus; Martin Luther; Ulrich Zwingli; William Tyndale; Hugh Latimer; John Calvin; John Knox; Lord Shaftesbury; and Thomas Chalmers
My thoughts: Since this whole series is pretty similar, I’m just going to review it as a whole. I did not like this series as much as the Ten Girls series, probably at least partly because the Ten Girls series is very nostalgic for me. I loved it in elementary school, but since I didn’t read the Ten Boys series until I was much older, I noticed a lot of things I’m not a fan of (which are probably similar in the Ten Girls series, but I don’t notice because I just remember how cool I thought they were when I was 8).
The books aren’t particularly well-written- at all. It’s fine for an elementary schooler (who it’s actually intended for), but the writing isn’t spectacular. Another thing I wasn’t particularly impressed with was the choice of people to write about. A lot of them are really famous preachers and stuff, so that makes sense, while the others were completely unfamiliar to me. That’s fine – in fact I kind of like that because it introduced me to good Christian examples I never would have known about otherwise. However, some of the people chosen just didn’t seem to fit exactly with the theme of the book, or I knew of other people who would be better to write about, and it frustrated me that they weren’t mentioned. (I don’t exactly remember which people I didn’t think fit, but I do remember thinking better choices could have been made).
All that being said, as an elementary schooler I wouldn’t notice these things. The books are all easy for younger children to read and understand, and at that age I would just think it was cool what all these people did for God.
My personal rating: 3/5 stars.
Link to blog: https://karinaschristianreads.wordpre...
Genre: Non-fiction, Missionary Biographies
Series: I combined all reviews for this series into one. The books are: Ten Boys Who Changed the World, Ten Boys Who Used Their Talents, Ten Boys Who Made History, Ten Boys Who Didn’t Give In, and Ten Boys Who Made a Difference.
Age recommendation: 6-12 *Note* Ten Boys Who Didn’t Give In is about martyrs so it might be better for older elementary school children (maybe 10-12).
Summary: Each book gives a short biography of ten different Christian ‘boys’ who used their lives for God.
Ten Boys Who Changed the World: Brother Andrew; John Newton; Billy Graham; Eric Liddell; William Carey; David Livingstone; Nicky Cruz; Adoniram Judson; George Muller; and Luis Palau.
Ten Boys Who Used Their Talents: Wilfred Grenfell; C.S. Lewis; James Clerk Maxwell; Ghillean Prance; Paul Brand; Johann Sebastian Bach; Samuel Morse; George Washington Carver; C.T. Studd; and John Bunyan.
Ten Boys Who Made History: Samuel Rutherford; John Owen; Jonathan Edwards; George Whitefield; Robert Murray McCheyne; Dwight L. Moody; Billy Sunday; Charles H. Spurgeon; Aiden W. Tozer; and Martyn Lloyd–Jones.
Ten Boys Who Didn’t Give In: Polycarp; Alban; Sir John Oldcastle; Thomas Cranmer; George Wishart; James Chalmers’ Dietrich Bonhoeffer; Nate Saint; Ivan Moiseyev; and Graham Staines.
Ten Boys Who Made a Difference: Augustine of Hippo; Jan Hus; Martin Luther; Ulrich Zwingli; William Tyndale; Hugh Latimer; John Calvin; John Knox; Lord Shaftesbury; and Thomas Chalmers
My thoughts: Since this whole series is pretty similar, I’m just going to review it as a whole. I did not like this series as much as the Ten Girls series, probably at least partly because the Ten Girls series is very nostalgic for me. I loved it in elementary school, but since I didn’t read the Ten Boys series until I was much older, I noticed a lot of things I’m not a fan of (which are probably similar in the Ten Girls series, but I don’t notice because I just remember how cool I thought they were when I was 8).
The books aren’t particularly well-written- at all. It’s fine for an elementary schooler (who it’s actually intended for), but the writing isn’t spectacular. Another thing I wasn’t particularly impressed with was the choice of people to write about. A lot of them are really famous preachers and stuff, so that makes sense, while the others were completely unfamiliar to me. That’s fine – in fact I kind of like that because it introduced me to good Christian examples I never would have known about otherwise. However, some of the people chosen just didn’t seem to fit exactly with the theme of the book, or I knew of other people who would be better to write about, and it frustrated me that they weren’t mentioned. (I don’t exactly remember which people I didn’t think fit, but I do remember thinking better choices could have been made).
All that being said, as an elementary schooler I wouldn’t notice these things. The books are all easy for younger children to read and understand, and at that age I would just think it was cool what all these people did for God.
My personal rating: 3/5 stars.
Link to blog: https://karinaschristianreads.wordpre...
January 19, 2025
3.5?
I like biographies. But I dislike fictional biographies. And all the childhood conversations kept me thinking: did this really happened or is this created to show one adjective the person has been described somewhere? Can't imagine that the whole series would be about people whose childhood conversations would be collected so precisely. So that is a minus.
Other than that - topics and people worth mentioning have been covered in this book.
Only - parents need to read this book especially before giving your child. I know one of my children would be ok with it, while another would be too sensitive for a few more years at least for so many direct martyrdom accounts.
I like biographies. But I dislike fictional biographies. And all the childhood conversations kept me thinking: did this really happened or is this created to show one adjective the person has been described somewhere? Can't imagine that the whole series would be about people whose childhood conversations would be collected so precisely. So that is a minus.
Other than that - topics and people worth mentioning have been covered in this book.
Only - parents need to read this book especially before giving your child. I know one of my children would be ok with it, while another would be too sensitive for a few more years at least for so many direct martyrdom accounts.
June 16, 2020
review to come
August 16, 2025
Pretty interesting stories for youth.
October 20, 2012
Read this book to the boys and loved it. 10 stories of boys who grew up to be men who loved Jesus and didnt give in when the going got tough. While reading the first story I was so moved to tears I could hardly read. Says on the back "In a world where we give in too easily be inspired by those who didn't"
April 19, 2016
Bought these books as a set. Great to read about a particular person or to read cover to cover. It gives you snippets into the lives of great people and makes you want to read more about them. Read about Nate Saint for CC1 wk#23..krb 4/19/16
Read
April 26, 2014 LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 4, 2016
This was a great read aloud for my young sons. Courage, determination, and grit are all modeled in these short stories.
June 15, 2023
This, although written for younger people, makes me think, would i be ready to die a martyrs death?
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews