Waiting with Elmer, by Deanna Klingel - Book Review

Waiting with Elmer, by Deanna Klingel is excellent book for the young adult in your life who needs to learn patience. Learning to wait for God’s timing can be an impossible task for anyone, but especially for a child. Meet Willy Skyes, left at a train station, by his father, to fend for himself. As Willy sits on a bench, waiting for the father who will never return, he meets Elmer, who seems to run the town of Waitnsee. Elmer introduces Willy to all the town’s residents, especially Rake, who runs the Union Street Mission.

Willy and his dad were always running from town to town because of the misdeeds of Willy’s dad. Now Willy was alone, but not for long. The men of the Union Street Mission take Willy under their wings, and Elmer makes sure that Willy has what he needs; a place to sleep, food, new clothes, and an education.

As the story progresses, we see Willy grow in virtue, especially patience, building bonds with the men of the Union Street Mission. He finds a “family” in these men; something Willy desperately needs. That sense of “family” sends Willy on his own mission to help another young man find his own way – call it Paying It Forward. Yet, how might this one decision of helping another change Willy’s own life? 

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