Red Rain by Rachel Newhouse is a welcome addition to any library of Christian books for middle grade and up. It’s a suspenseful series opener with several illustrations, set 50 years in the future. Earth is governed by a grim single government bent on destroying religion, among other things.
Philadelphia Smyrna, a Christian young person (age 13?), lives in a prison-like compound for dissenters like her and her father. Owning a Bible is a crime, so they have no Bibles. Suddenly her father, a scientist, is called to work on the colony on Mars. So an arrangement is made to put Philadelphia in an adoptive non-religious family on Earth.
Philadelphia doesn’t want to leave her father, of course. But what can she do about it?
Plenty, it turns out.
Philadelphia must sort out morally questionable and morally good actions as the tale unfolds in the Mars colony, and she must deal with a megalomaniac bent on death and destruction. She finds courage and inner peace through her faith, and manages to do some very brave things.
This is the start of the Red Rain series. I highly recommend this for Christian kids 12 and up, five stars!
