Going in this book was not what I thought it was going to be and I was still pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this book. The diversity of the stories makes the book for me, along with the overall message of hope that most stories being. A great book and I will definitely be recommending this book to my friends to read.

This is a short, sweet anthology with stories of people who are making the world a better place. I really enjoyed Clemens' intro on peacemaking - it was so well said. The end of the book even includes Bible verses related to peace. This is a book that I would be happy to share with my students or others, but I was a little confused with the focus of the book. It is written in a simplistic manner for children, but there are some themes that are more suited for a slightly older audience (drugs, depression, a martyr being executed, etc.). Those themes are very brief and well-written, but I found myself a bit confused as to what the goal of the book was, or who it was aimed towards. Overall, I enjoyed the positive and encouraging book.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Herald Press & Judy Clemens for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Making waves is an anthology with 50 different inspiring stories from people who are changing the world with all sorts of existing difficulties in their lives already. The stories are short and made me want to open up my own non profit organization to make the world a better place. The author wrote about how several non profit organizations were found in America and several third world countries, in places where sometimes it was hard for people to even provide for their immediate families. There were several well known organizations mentioned in this anthology; which was very insightful since the author talked about how those organizations came to be into existence. Definitely will add those organizations on my list of places to donate to. I loved the ‘one drop can fill a bucket’ message that tied all the stories together.

The only thing that bothered me and probably will not bother the targeted audience of the book was how all the stories had something to do a with a believer of the Christian Faith, as a Muslim person I personally felt a bit targeted when islamic extremists were paired against faithful Christians. When in reality not all muslims are extremists and not all of us impose our religion onto others. The problem is stories like these feed to the propaganda that all Muslims like forcing their beliefs onto people who believe in a different god or even atheists, who don’t believe in a god at all. It’s not just about extremist Muslims, it’s the comparison that made me feel weird, the comparison between faithful Christians and extremist Muslims. I feel like it would have been nice to read stories from different religions or even different Christian perspectives, the author talks about the Mennonite church a lot.

Overall I loved the stories complied, the book was extremely well written and all the chapters were intentional. The book comes out on 10/06/2020, would recommend 💯

I absolutely adored this book! I have been really loving books like this lately where I can hear bits of stories from different individuals. One of the highlights was the diversity in this book. It wasn’t just a book of cis, able-bodied white people. There were stories of people from different genders and backgrounds. I especially loved the overall hopeful tone this book delivered and how each story was even more uplifting than the last. One thing I wish was more clear was the strong focus on religion in this book. It was a common theme in most stories, and while I understand many individuals use religions as a way to build upon their dreams, I am not one interested in reading about religion as much as this book did. I just wish there was more insight into the amount of times it was going to be discussed, but it didn’t really change my opinion on this book. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone with younger readers.

Great book about stories of people doing good for the world. However, I was expecting more of the mention/influence of Jesus, which was absent from almost every single story. His presence and work is implied, but not explicit for those who may not know what to see.