With a desire for our kids to be missions minded, missionary stories are books we frequently read aloud in our homeschool. Growing Up Yanomamö: Missionary Adventures in the Amazon Rainforest, and I Can See the Shore: Growing up Yanomamö Today from Grace Acres Press were a great addition to our missionary story collection.

Many people are familiar with the heroes of the faith from long ago. The stories of Adoniram Judson, David Livingstone, and Mary Slessor have inspired readers for generations. But, the work of the Lord on the mission field didn’t end with these long-ago heroes. Missionaries today have their own stories to tell, and I enjoyed introducing my children to a new to us mission field and missionary family in these books.

Each of these books is a paperback. Growing Up Yanomamö is the longer of the two, at 317 pages. I Can See the Shore is a bit shorter, with only 255 pages. Both are divided into chapters to make them easier to read aloud. Chapters are around twenty pages each, though some are a bit longer or shorter.

The books are written by Michael Dawson. A missionary kid, he was born on a missionary base on the Orinoco River, and learned Yanomamö as his first language. He was seven when he learned English and continued to serve as a missionary alongside his parents. After he grew, he went to the United States for Bible school, and then missionary training. He married, and returned to South America to work with the Yanomamö people in Venezuela.

The books detail some of the many adventures he had growing up on the mission field, and continue to share the struggles of presenting the gospel to the people there when he was an adult. Throughout the pages, readers are brought into Yanomamö tribe, and begin to understand more about life in this culture.

Some events depicted are a little intense and may not be appropriate for younger listeners or readers. For instance, there is a story of a dog attack and the subsequent “killing” of the dog. It turns out the dog didn’t die, but it was still an intense moment that pitted the missionaries against the tribe. Another chapter depicts the burning of a corpse.

Dawson and his wife had three sons. They served together on the mission field. He lost his first wife to cerebral malaria. He later remarried, and he and his second wife had two daughters. The first part of the second book talks about the NICU experience with their oldest daughter, Mikeila. She goes through many procedures and experiences in her short life, and though she does get to go home, her life is filled with medical problems. After a few years, she passes away.

This part of the book is rather hard to read. It jumps back and forth between flashbacks. It mentions her death rather off-hand at first, and then jumps back to the past to explain. During this section, one of Dawson’s boys is diagnosed with cancer and needs surgery. It’s a rather jumbled together part of the book, full of emotion and love. For sensitive readers, this whole section may be hard to read.

Despite some rather traumatic experiences throughout his life, Dawson’s love of Christ, and his desire to spread the gospel shines clearly in both books. He loves the Yanomamö and wanted to do all he could to tell them the life changing, good news of the gospel.

I’d definitely recommend this book for families who want to know more about the struggles of present-day missionaries. God’s work is still being done through the Great Commission, and every missionary faces challenges and set-backs along with the joy of serving and leading people to Christ.

However, I think it’s a book parents should preview before handing to their kids or just beginning to read them aloud. That way you can be sure to discuss any areas that may be hard to understand. It wasn’t one I wanted to read aloud when my younger kids were listening, so I had just my teen and I read it together. As the other kids get older, we will go back through it, because it really does have such important concepts in it about serving God no matter the cost.

-Product review by Lisa Tanner, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, September, 2018