Wilfred Grenfell: Arctic Adventurer

Wilfred Grenfell: The Arctic Adventurer_, by Linda Finlayson Christian Focus Publications, Ross-shire UK 2004 ISBN 1-85792-929-2 Youth biography ages 8-11 Reviewed by Donna Farley Technically speaking, Newfoundland and Labrador are not quite the Arctic, so the alliterative subtitle is a bit of poetic license that might best have been avoided in an educational book. But that Sir Wilfred Grenfell led a life of adventure is undeniable. This lively and informative biography for young people details the exceptional career of this medical missionary, who became a towering figure in Canadian history. "Many people think being a Christian is boring because you have to obey all of God's laws," writes author Linda Finlayson, a Canadian now living in the U.S. "But they are wrong because obeying God and listening to him is really a very great adventure." It was Grenfell's own first-person narrative of the great adventure in his own life, _Adrift on an Ice Pan_, that first got Finlayson interested in the preacher and physician. She opens her book with Grenfell's harrowing experience on the ice off the Newfoundland coast in 1908, and the moving account of his necessary sacrifice of several of his sled dogs. The British-born Grenfell's early work involved treating the ills of men in the North Sea fishing fleet, but it was not until he arrived in Canada that he came into his own. The harsh climate of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the poverty and suffering of the inhabitants, provided a fit challenge for his seemingly inexhaustible creative energy. Before his death in 1940, he had travelled extensively in the area by ship and dogsled, establishing a workable medical system, forming the locals into craft manufacturing co-operatives, even importing reindeer from Lapland to provide milk for needy children. All these initiatives came from a heartfelt love for the gospel as Grenfell heard it from D.L. Moody in a London tent meeting. Bonus material makes this book especially suitable for school or home school use: Newfoundland-Labrador map; timeline placing events in Grenfell's life in the context of world and Canadian History; quiz with answers; Grenfell summary; Newfoundland history, geography and symbols. The book is just one of Christian Focus's Light Keepers series of biographies for young people, which includes a wide variety of other Christian luminaries such as Eric Liddel, David Livingstone, Billy Graham, Augustine of Hippo, Florence Nightingale, Corrie Ten Boom, Catherine Booth and more.

I really liked this book. It was exciting to read and I hope that the author writes more.