Born Again

by Kelly Kerney

Book Overview

What happens when a Bible Quiz Champion takes on Darwin? Mel, a faith-filled Pentecostal, has the chance to escape Slow Rapids, Indiana, by attending academic summer camp. The only catch? She has to read forbidden tomes like The Origin of Species . So she forges the permission slip, promising God she'll bring him a lost soul in exchange.

Mel conscientiously uses her Biblical expertise to argue Darwin's theories, but meanwhile begins to realize...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0156031450
• ISBN13: 9780156031455
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 7.9"
• Age Range: 14 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 9 and higher

Customer Reviews

New York Times Book Review

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/books/review/Winter.t.html?_r=1 & n=Top/Features/Books/Book%20Reviews & oref=slogin BORN AGAIN. By Kelly Kerney. (Harvest/Harcourt, paper, $14.) The tale of a young Pentecostal's test of faith, Kerney's debut novel has guts and strength, even as it pivots on its narrator's uncertainty. For a summer academic camp, teenage Melanie is assigned Darwin's "Origin of Species," which tops her church's list of blasphemous books. But Melanie's curiosity and intelligence flourish despite her embrace of a religion Kerney depicts as repressive and censorious. Melanie hides the Darwin book and responds to it with surreptitious journal entries. Her older siblings don't share her religious scruples; her sister has a daughter and is involved with an abusive lout, and her brother lives in the basement, working at a local factory and continually looking to escape. Her parents, born again after unholy pasts (her father drank and smoked pot, her mother was pregnant before marriage), lash out at her slightest misstep with frightening rage. Though likable and forthright, Melanie, too, is prone to occasional violent outbursts, which unsettle her family and community and finally lead to a sexually charged exorcism by her local pastor, who "leaned into me with his weight to keep me still." Ultimately, reading Darwin teaches Melanie that just as animals change over generations to survive, she too must adapt to survive her provincial Indiana town. Though it would be easy to clobber readers with such an obvious message, Kerney executes it subtly and skillfully.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

Starting this book, I wasn't sure what to expect. It deals with religion, so I thought it might be preachy. It talks about Darwin, so I was expecting some strong opinions on the subject--everyone has them. BORN AGAIN is Kelly Kerney's first novel, so I had no expectations as to the writing. In the quote on the back cover, Mel (the main character) talks about using the Bible to prove Darwin wrong. I, personally, am not a religious person and believe Darwin had the right idea, so I wasn't sure I'd be able to enjoy this book. Wow, was I ever wrong. This book deals wonderfully with the admittedly heavy topics of both Darwinian science and religion (Mel belongs to an Evangelical Pentecostal family), without being at all preachy. Kerney isn't trying to convince the reader of anything; she is only showing one girl's search for the truth, and in that she raises some thought-provoking questions about science, religion, and life. When the novel begins, Mel is an enthusiastic, religious, and smart teenager. She not only wants to do what's right in her own life, she wants to save everyone else, too. She believes every word from Pastor Lyle's mouth as if it came from God himself (which she believes it does). She would never dream of going against what the church and her parents teach her...Right? When Mel receives a scholarship to academic summer camp, with that comes a reading list. She isn't sure that Pastor Lyle would approve of some of the books on it, like Wuthering Heights (Bantam Classics), but they're not on the "blasphemy list," so she reads most of the books. And then she comes to Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species. She knows that her family and church would certainly not approve of her reading this. Secretly, she borrows a copy from her best friend, Beth, and starts to read. At first, Mel is determined to use the Bible to prove Darwin wrong. She's sure it can be done. However, as she reads, what Darwin says begins to make sense. This, coupled with some discoveries about the past of her own family, has her doubting some of what she's been told. If what her parents have told her about their own lives is a lie, then who knows what else is a lie? Mel also finds that Darwin and God don't have to be mutually exclusive. This is an idea that has never occurred to her; this is not what she has been taught. Mel's beliefs are being challenged, and now she has to figure out exactly what she believes before she can defend or disprove anything. BORN AGAIN is a fascinating and brilliantly written look inside the Christian fundamentalism that is so prevalent in America today. It is a thought-provoking story about one girl, but it addresses so much more than just what Mel is dealing with. The front cover blurb on the book says that BORN AGAIN is "enough to make an atheist pray--that this is not America's future," speaking of the Christian fundamentalism addressed in the book. It's true; these people are so sure of their beliefs and so extreme that i

Thoughtful examination of faith, doubt, and religion

It would be easy to have a knee-jerk reaction to this book and assume it's anti-Christian, but what makes this book great is how it examines a young girl's thoughtful evaluation of her beliefs, which is in no way the same as disregarding them. I am not religious myself, but this book made me have a greater sympathy with those who are and who approach their beliefs in an intelligent way.

The Third Hour of the Day

Melanie, the narrator, is growing up Pentecostal in a family with an ex-alcoholic father, an obsessive-compulsive mother, a promiscuous sister and a delinquent brother. She starts off as a "Jesus freak" but is being seduced away from religion by reading Darwin, and by disillusionment with the adults in her life. Although it is intelligent and full of humor it does not poke easy fun at fundamentalists. Every character is complex and three-dimensional, and Kerney even allows persuasive apologists for old-time religion to have their say. The narrative is at such a crackling pace, and the conflicts are so compelling, and the intellectual issues so interesting, that it's easy to miss the author's superb mastery of unobtrusive scene setting. Where a lesser writer might have just said that there were cornfields and it was spring and the narrator was on a bus, Kerney has " I watched my own reflection wandering over the cornfields ... the pumpkin patch , which was now nothing but a huge square of dirt studded by posts." It was interesting to compare with Jeanette Winterton's "Oranges are not the Only Fruit" about a girl growing up Pentecostal in England, and with Pearl Abraham's "The Romance Reader" about growing up Hasidic in Rockland County. At one time the Pentecostals were distinguished by "speaking in tongues" although these days you even get charismatic Roman Catholics who do that, and American Pentecostals are distinguished more by snazzy churches and jazzy services and high pressure proselytism and literal Bible belief. The practice of speaking in tongues is based on the Second Chapter of Acts. I've always been intrigued by verse 15, where Peter explains that "these are not drunken as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day." I suppose charismatics have to be careful about what time they hold their services

Hilarious!

I have to say the first thing that caught my eye was the cover while i was browsing in the local bookstore. But after reading the first few pages, i was immediately hooked. It was so funny at some parts that i actually laughed out loud (got some unwanted attention from other customers in the bookstore :) ). The author clearly has a vast knowledge of both the bible and darwinian evolution, there are some deep inisghts into both int the book. Beside all the jokes, the transition of Mel from a deeply indoctrinated "Christ's soldier" to a skeptical evolutionist is just priceless!