Book Review: The Artist's Daughter

When I received my advance, autographed copy of The Artist's Daughter in the mail, I was ecstatic.  It's the MOPS theme book for 2013.  I've been involved with MOPS since 2008, when I was pregnant with my first baby, and I've been our group's co-coordinator for the past year.  In fact, since my mom was involved in this ministry, I'm actually a second generation MOPS Mom.  I love this mom ministry and I've enjoyed their books in the past, but just by looking at the cover, I knew this book was different.

Psst.  You can buy the book here at the MOPShop.  

While it's not a novel, Alexandra Kuykendall's The Artist's Daughter reads like one.  It's the book that you'll want to read cover to cover and then pass along to your friends.  It would make a great summer read, since it's fast paced enough to keep you interested, yet rich enough to grow and challenge you.

Alex is real and honest about her heartaches, and early on in the book, I wanted the little girl Alex to find a deep connection with her daddy, who she met when she was 8.  He was a famous artist in Spain, and it was in Barcelona that she met him for the first time.

She writes

But I couldn't help being hopeful--a long held habit.  Maybe when the awkwardness passed, when he knew me, I would know what it was to have a father's love.  That gaping hole would be filled.

We read of her journey as an empty little girl who grows into a young lady and then a mom.  I loved Alex's honesty about so many issues:  postpartum depression, marriage struggles, challenges in motherhood, and even a tendency to be judgmental of other moms.  And through it all, we see that little girl and the effects of her daddy's absence.  But we also see how The Artist, the One who created her, who created me and you, dear mama, filled that hole in her life.  He didn't make her life perfect, but he carried her through her struggles, and now God is using her story for His glory.  He followed through on His promises to grow her in Christlikeness.  As she learns to walk in God's grace, she writes:

That's a lesson I've been learning repeatedly as a mom.  A messy house does not define me, and neither do cranky toddlers or disobedient preschoolers.  As I read her book, I felt challenged in my own walk with God and in my own journey as a mother and a wife.  It made me want to be a better mom, and it made me want to trust God more in those tough moments, the moments when I feel like I could either explode or implode.  

It also made me look forward to our MOPS theme for next year:

Life is full of messes, but we know, as Isaiah 61:3 says, that God gives us beauty for ashes.  He can take the heartaches, the mess, the junk of life and make it something that honors Him.


What are some encouraging books that you've read lately?  Are you involved in a local MOPS group?