Riley Mae and the Ready Eddy Rapids

The Good News Shoes

by Jill Osborne

If you’re gonna run for your life,

you gotta wear the right shoes.

Life is rapidly changing for pre-teen shoe spokesperson Riley Mae. After escaping near disaster at the top of Half Dome in Yosemite, Riley, her family, and her Swiftriver co-workers fly to a secret hideout in Northwest Montana. But when the plane’s malfunction leads to a rough landing, Riley wants nothing more than to return to friends, church, and home. Then she meets Sunday, a ten-year-old boy from Kenya who wrestles fish, battles bears, and tackles leukemia. While her rigorous raft training for the marketing campaign brings a few bumps and bruises, Riley now feels up for the challenge.

Everything looks as bright as the glistening fool’s gold on her “Ready Eddy” river sandals, but everything is not as it seems. Riley soon learns that life is as unpredictable as the raging waters, which, if she is not careful, will sweep her away and into the hands of an enemy who is even closer than she thinks.

Genres: Middle Grade, Christian, Childrens, Christian Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 2014

About the author

Jill Osborne is an author and speaker who loves kids (probably because she still is one). She has 30+ years of experience working in children’s and youth ministry and now writes adventure stories to bring hope to a new generation. She lives with her husband in California’s Central Valley—just a short drive from her favorite place in the whole world, Yosemite National Park. A hike to the top of Half-Dome in 2003 inspired her very first book: Riley Mae and the Rock Shocker Trek.

Reviews

[Lindsey (Books for Christian Girls) · Rating 4 out of 5]

About this book:

“If you’re gonna run for your life, you gotta wear the right shoes.
Life is rapidly changing for pre-teen shoe spokesperson Riley Mae. After escaping near disaster at the top of Half Dome in Yosemite, Riley, her family, and her Swiftriver co-workers fly to a secret hideout in Northwest Montana. But when the plane’s malfunction leads to a rough landing, Riley wants nothing more than to return to friends, church, and home. Then she meets Sunday, a ten-year-old boy from Kenya who wrestles fish, battles bears, and tackles leukemia. While her rigorous raft training for the marketing campaign brings a few bumps and bruises, Riley now feels up for the challenge.
Everything looks as bright as the glistening fool’s gold on her “Ready Eddy” river sandals, but everything is not as it seems. Riley soon learns that life is as unpredictable as the raging waters, which, if she is not careful, will sweep her away and into the hands of an enemy who is even closer than she thinks.”


Series: Book #2 in “The Good News Shoes” series. (Book #1 review, Here!)


Spiritual Content- Ephesians 6:15 at the beginning; Many prayers; Many Scriptures are discussed, mentioned, read, remembered & thought over; Bible reading; Witnessing; Church going & lessons; Many talks about God, Jesus, peace & God loving us; Talks about Heaven & dying; ‘H’s are not capital when referring to God; *Spoiler* Rusty asks God into her heart *End of Spoiler*; Mentions of Church; Mentions of Bibles & being Christians; Mentions of watching people get baptized & being baptized; A couple mentions of those in the Bible.


Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘stupid’, two forms of ‘dumb’, and three ‘rats’; Siblings bicker; Blood, Cuts & Stitches (semi-detailed); Mentions of crashes & injuries (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of bleeding bait (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of murder (no details); A few mentions of divorce; A couple mentions of a former alcoholic; A mention of suicide; A mention of killing a fish (semi-detailed); A hint of putting a bear down.


Sexual Content- A mention of Sean’s new crush; Mentions of Fawn & Matt having crushes on each other; Mentions of Sean asking Riley to marry him (which she won’t because her name would be Riley O’Reilly); Mentions of cute boys; Many mentions of Rusty’s mom who left.

-Riley Mae Hart, age 12
1st person P.O.V. of Riley
252 pages

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Pre Teens- Four Stars
New Teens- Four Stars
Early High School Teens- Four Stars
Older High School Teens- Four Stars
My personal Rating- Four Stars
I’m not a water person at all, so all those (many) parts were lost on me. Even then, though, “Riley Mae and the Ready Eddy Rapids” was such a great book with fantastic Spiritual Content.
I also love Flip. That is all.


Link to review:
http://booksforchristiangirls.blogspo...


*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.

[DelAnne Frazee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title: Riley Mae and the Ready Eddy Rapids- Faithgirlz The Good News Shoes Book 2
Author: Jill Osborne
Publisher: Zonderkidz-Books
Published: 1-28-2014
Pages: 256
Genre: Children's Fiction
Sub-Genre: Christian; Friends
ISBN: 9780310742999
ASIN: B015UUMK8O
Reviewed For NetGalley and Zonderkidz-Books
Reviewer: DelAnne
Rating: 4.75 Stars


Riley Mae is a young athletic girl who loves baseball. She is also the spokesperson for the Swiftriver Shoe Company.


After her previous problems at Yosemite and the problems with SwifterRiver are resolved. She and her co-workers go to a secret location to train for the next advertising campaign. The plane malfunctions and after finally makes it down. While training she meets a young Kenyan boy named Sunday with leukemia. Her friendship with Sunday helps her stand strong when she feels she can not continue. Even when she finds out things once more are not what they seem.


This is a series that teaches even as it entertains. I rated this book at 4.75 out of 5 stars. If you have a young reader looking for a series that is interesting and fun to read and you can trust to be safe and clean for them to read. Then this series is the one you have been looking for. I don't believe you will be disappointed.


Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015UUMK8O/...

B&N Link: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rile...

GoodReads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

The Reading Room Link: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.ph...

Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/DelAnne531/status...

[Lynnea (Juv) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Through the BookLook program, I was provided Book 2 from The Good News Shoes series, Riley Mae and the Ready Eddy Rapids, by Jill Osborne. My son read this book in a day or two and asked when we could get more - five stars for sure!

When Riley Mae begs her parents to sign a shoe contract with Swiftriver, she finds herself traveling all over the country. She even gets to meet four cool kids from Africa - one, named Sunday, is battling leukemia. In the traveling, even though it is fun, Riley struggles to find her faith in God. Riley's best friend, Rusty, flies out to surprise her in Montana. While in Montana, Riley has a photo shoot to do while going down the rapids but she loses her raft and gets stuck at the bottom of the river! Will she make it out alive? Will Sunday survive leukemia? And what about her faith in God in the middle of this?

[Jalynn Patterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

About the Book:

If you're gonna run for your life, you gotta wear the right shoes. Life is rapidly changing for pre-teen shoe spokesperson Riley Mae. After the last photo shoot and trek up the Half-Dome in Yosemite, Riley Mae and her Swiftriver friends find themselves in Northwest Montana, the perfect backdrop for a river sandal campaign. The first problem is a plane malfunction.

Then the rigorous raft training for the 'Ready Eddy' river sandal campaign brings more bumps and bruises. And given that she is in Montana for a shoe campaign instead of back home with her friends, Riley thinks life can't get much worse. But then she meets Sunday, a 10 year-old boy from Kenya, who wrestles fish, battles bears, and tackles leukemia. And Riley soon learns that life is as unpredictable as the raging waters, which, if she is not careful, will sweep her away and into the hands of the enemy---who is even closer than she thinks.

About the Author:

Jill Osborne works in children's ministry and has a passion for telling great stories. She has written plays, skits for youth groups and Sunday morning drama teams, curriculum for children's ministry, countless articles for her church newsletter, and a blog about taking a sabbatical in a motor home. Good News Shoes is her first series for kids, and she plans to run with it!

My Review:

Well spring is upon us and it is finally time for another adventure with Riley Mae. The second book in the series, Riley Mae and the Ready Eddy Rapids finds Riley Mae, her family, and her co workers in a bit of a pickle. Riley Mae is the first one to learn very valuable lessons that God intends on teaching her. She always thinks that her situation is worse than anybody's but soon she sees she doesn't have it so bad and she learns real quick that God is trying to teach her something.

This series is perfect for the 8-12 year age group. Each book in the series contains valuable life lessons that we all could learn from. I really like this series and I think its perfect for our children to learn that life isn't all about them, but about someone much greater!

**Disclosure** This book was sent to me free of charge for my honest review from BookLook.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title: RILEY MAIE AND THE READY EDDY RAPIDS
Author: Jill Osborne
Publisher: Zonderkidz
February 2014
ISBN: 978-0310742999
Genre: Young adult

If you're gonna run for your life, you gotta wear the right shoes.

Life is rapidly changing for pre-teen shoe spokesperson Riley Mae. After the last photo shoot and trek up the Half-Dome in Yosemite, Riley Mae and her Swiftriver friends find themselves in Northwest Montana, the perfect backdrop for a river sandal campaign. The first problem is a plane malfunction. Then the rigorous raft training for the 'Ready Eddy' river sandal campaign brings more bumps and bruises. And given that she is in Montana for a shoe campaign instead of back home with her friends, Riley thinks life can't get much worse.

But then she meets Sunday, a 10 year-old boy from Kenya, who wrestles fish, battles bears, and tackles leukemia. And Riley soon learns that life is as unpredictable as the raging waters, which, if she is not careful, will sweep her away and into the hands of the enemy---who is even closer than she thinks.

RILEY MAE AND THE READY EDDY RAPIDS is the second book in The Good News Shoes series. I recommend reading Riley Mae and the Rock Shocker Trek, first as the first book is referred to in the second.

Since this book—series—is for 8-12 years tweeners, I am going to let one of my daughters review it.

She says: I liked RILEY MAE AND THE READY EDDY RAPIDS a lot. She’s a twelve year old girl, just like me and she has the funnest adventures. Riley Mae was going river rafting and someone tossed volleyball net into the water. Someone was hanging on to the other end of it and it somehow knocked the instructor out of the raft and also knocked out Riley Mae. Riley was underwater and she remembered she was supposed to curl up into a ball and she went over a waterfall and did the most awesome cannonball. But she also broke her hand against the rock.

I recommend this book. It is full of excitement, fun, and will keep you engaged.

If you have a tween girl, then be sure to pick up RILEY MAE AND THE READY EDDY RAPIDS for her. She’ll be sure to love it. $7.99 256 pages. 5 stars.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

As if the adventures in the book “Riley Mae and the Rock Shocker Trek” weren’t enough, we now find in the second of the series, “Riley Mae and the Ready Eddy Rapids”, Riley along with her co-workers from Swift River and family are once again on the run. This time they are going to a secret hideout in Northwest Montana. This book starts with a rough landing due to the plane’s malfunction. About this time Riley wants to return home to her friends and church, but she meets Sunday, a boy from Kenya who is 10 years old and is dealing with leukemia. Their journey is filled with adventure from wrestling fish, almost being eaten by Herod, the bear, learning to raft, nearly drowning in the rapids and a bunch of trips to the emergency room, but none of that compares to the danger from the person trying to do them harm.

This book is the second in the Good News Shoes Faith Girlz Series. These books are great for young Tween girls. Although they are filled with adventure, they also are filled with learning to do what is right and what God would have you do along with prayer, faith and reading your Bible. They talk a great deal about listening to the needs of those around you and not dwelling on yourself. Sunday’s faith is all inspiring as he gives encouragement even though his situation is serious. From the first page of the first book my nine year old granddaughter was hooked. She can’t wait to read to read this one. I am sure as each new book is released it will find its way to her library. I would highly recommend this to any Tween girl as it also gives inspiration in finding self-confidence and being comfortable with who you are and learning that we all make mistakes, but it is how we deal with them that is important. I am very impressed with this series.

Disclosure: I was given a copy of this book by the publisher, ZonderKidz, for an honest review. I was not required to write a favorable review nor was I compensated for my review. The opinions in this review are my own.

[Lydia Howe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why I Choose this Book:
I read the first book in the series last year (read the review here) and I really enjoyed it so I wanted to continue with the adventures.
What I Thought:
I really liked this book. There was adventure, intrigue, and enough questions to keep me excited and thoroughly enjoying the book. Riley Mae (let's just stop for a moment and think about how cool her name is; I sometimes stop and say it out loud because I like it so much) is a fun, easy to follow narrator who's head is interesting to be inside of. I could relate to Riley Mae which is always a huge plus for me when I'm reading a book.
Riley Mae is a shoe model and travels around doing adventurous activities in preparation for photo-shoots and then of course for the photo-shoots themselves. There are also some "bad guys" on their trail and a friend with a missing mother and rich employers with private airplanes and all that kind of cool stuff. Pretty exciting.
Conclusion:
I was extremely pleased with this book. The bad attitudes that had bothered me in the last book were very minimal in this book so that was nice. There was one time where Riley sneaked into someone's room and did something she shouldn't have, but other than that I can't remember anything questionable.
I gave this book to my younger sister as soon as I was done reading it and would gladly recommend it to any of my youngish friends.
Rating
I'm giving Riley Mae and the Ready Eddy Rapids Four Stars
(I received this book free from BookLook in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.)

[Callie · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Riley Mae and the Ready Eddy Rapids" is written by Jill Osborne and is the second book in "The Good News Shoes" series, the first being "Riley Mae and the Rock Shocker Trek ". This book is published by Zonderkids.

After a traumatic experience at Half Dome in Yosemite, Riley and her family are sent to Montana for safety reasons. After a rough landing caused by the plane taking Riley there, all Riley wants is to go back home to her friends, school, and church. Then she meets Sunday, an optimistic ten-year-old boy battling leukemia. After several scrapes and bruises from practicing wrestling the rapids, Riley feels ready for the challenge. Everything seems as bright as Riley's gold painted toenails, but things are more different than they seem. Riley very soon learns that life is as unpredictable as the churning waters of the rapids, and mysterious surprises come around every corner.

I liked this book because Riley is always trusting God in whatever she does and is trying to help her friend, Rusty, grow stronger in her walk with the Lord. I also liked this book because the plot was well thought out, unique, and very exciting. The characters were original and were relatable in the way that they had problems similar to everyday life.

Thank you to the Book Sneeze/Book Look program, and Zonderkidz publishing. I would recommend this book to girls ages 10-12.

[Rosemond Cates · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a reader (and lover) of Christian fiction, I confess that some of it is less than awesome...just like any genre. And with a middle grade reader in my home, I have encountered many sub-par books in this category. I have to tell you though, Riley Mae exceeded my expectations. It is not at all "preachy." which is the downfall of many Christian middle grade books. This book included scripture, but not every other sentence. It focused on real world issues of 12 year old Riley Mae, who is just as lively as any tween. The central verse is Ephesians 6:15 : "For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared." I thought this was a perfect verse for a darling protagonist who happens to be the spokeswoman for a shoe company! The central theme is clearly Christian, and the book embrace Christianity as a belief, a way of living...not just lip-service and churchy words. The book is action packed and has some mystery. It is just plain fun to read!

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I chose this book for my 10 year old daughter to read. With her stuck on books like The Babysitter Club I thought it would be good to introduce some Christian fiction into her life. Riley Mae and the Ready Eddy Rapids by Jill Osborne seemed like a good one to start with.

She says that she really liked this book. She loved the adventure aspect of the story and the fact that the whole book didn't revolve around "typical" pre-teen story lines like boys and make-up. There was adventure, drama, Faith, and even real life like cancer and hospital stays introduced. These are things which may seem deep for the age group but since my daughter has actually lived a life with this drama involved I found it to be quite relevant and good for pre-teens to read about real struggles in life.

She is looking forward to the other books in the series and I'm glad to have found an author that can write interesting, as well as moral, pre-teen books.

Disclaimer: This book was given to us by BookLook Bloggers in exchange for our honest opinion.

[Lynnea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Through the BookLook program, I was provided Book 2 from The Good News Shoes series, Riley Mae and the Ready Eddy Rapids, by Jill Osborne. My son read this book in a day or two and asked when we could get more - five stars for sure!

When Riley Mae begs her parents to sign a shoe contract with Swiftriver, she finds herself traveling all over the country. She even gets to meet four cool kids from Africa - one, named Sunday, is battling leukemia. In the traveling, even though it is fun, Riley struggles to find her faith in God. Riley's best friend, Rusty, flies out to surprise her in Montana. While in Montana, Riley has a photo shoot to do while going down the rapids but she loses her raft and gets stuck at the bottom of the river! Will she make it out alive? Will Sunday survive leukemia? And what about her faith in God in the middle of this?

[Misty Nordyke · Rating 5 out of 5]

** I received this complimentary book from Book Look for my honest review and opinions. **



I picked this book because I wanted to get a child's opinion, so I let my daughter Tessa read it and here is what she said about Riley Mae and the Ready Eddy Rapids:

" My favorite part in the book was when Riley went for her photo shoot. I also liked when Riley had to learn different ways to save her raft and her raft kept flipping over, the funny part was when she kept dropping the handle to the raft and she hit her big toe on a rock and complaining to Rusty how she had messed up her nail polish. They wound up using Rusty's feet for the picture.

I think every girl should read this book, I think they would like it. I think it is a funny read."

[Cassandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cassandra's Review- I fell in love with the Riley Mae series because it is filled with a great message. I think it is written in a way children will connect and enjoy every moment. You can not help but be blessed by this authors writing.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Book Look Bloggers

[Boston Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, my goodness, I loved these books! I did read them in 2017....and I’m just writing a review anyway lol)
But the 2017 me LoVeD these. They were interesting and made me want to keep reading (which doesn’t come very easily for me in a book)

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally amazing!!!!!!! Every sentence caught my attention. Very adventurous. I recommend to any nature lover.

[Karen Loke · Rating 5 out of 5]

good reads

It's really cool and fun and you never know what is going to happen next.

I don't like it because it always ends when you don't know what is going to happen next.

[Caroline Ndungu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am 9 years old. I think this book is aaaaaaaaamazing because it was nice for Riley Mae to share the gospel with her friend Rusty.Riley helped Rusty to find her Mom, too.

[Adley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great sequel to the Good News Shoes books. It is a fun read for kids, while also teaching them about what it means to have God in your life.