What is this book all about?
Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo is about a little boy named Colton, and his trip to heaven and back. This story is about Colton’s miraculous recovery after and emergency appendectomy. During his second surgery he visited heaven for three minutes and came back. After he recovers he tells his family about what heaven is like.
A lesson I learned after reading this book is to always trust God, no matter what the circumstance. I thought this book was very well done and enjoyed this book very much. I thought Heaven is for Real was a very inspirational story.
11 Year Old Went to Heaven and Back, and Tells What He Saw!
About the book and its authors
The book’s full title is Heaven Is For Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back. It was written by Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent.
Burpo is a pastor at Crossroads Wesleyan Church in Imperial, Nebraska.
Vincent, on the other hand is a former US Navy veteran-turned author and journalist, and an impassioned supporter of the Republican Party. Her credits include co-authoring Sarah Palin’s autobiography Going Rogue: An American Life and Same Kind of Different as Me.
Heaven Is For Real is actually a real-life chronicle of Burpo’s son Colton’s “journey” to heaven and back while he was experiencing appendectomy surgery (after finding out a ruptured appendix). He was about three years old when the unfortunate thing befell on him.
When the boy recovered months later, he described events during his “trip” to heaven where he encountered people he has never even met in person, including his stillborn sister and his late grandfather (who died even before Colton was born)
Colton even “met” John the Baptist, and a rainbow-colored horse. The boy also “saw” Jesus Christ whom Colton described had “red markers” on his hands and feet which are wounds that He suffered from being nailed on the cross.
Colton also “saw” and “heard” the angels singing and “met” Mother Mary in some occasions.
Praise and criticism
Heaven Is For Real is praised by many readers for its sweet, touching and heartwarming story. This book will be of good help in helping to ease the pain of anybody who has lost a loved one, They can relate to the book’s passages. It’s a feel-good book — many people will derive a lot of inspiration from it.
Where Heaven Is For Real wins a lot of praises it is also a magnet of questions from the skeptics, even from fellow religious figures. They criticize the book for its fantastical, exploitative nature, not to mention “encounters” and insights which aren’t based on the Bible or are lacking any proof that such things ever exist. They also find that the book doesn’t only have factual errors on the spiritual side but also on the medical matters as well. The dissenting readers agree upon one thing that there’s a lack of any evidence that the boy was clinically dead while on the operating table.
A popular best-seller
However, these harshly critical evaluations of the book didn’t deter Heaven Is For Real from becoming a popular best-seller.
In fact, a film based on the book is expected to hit the theaters this coming Easter (as of this writing). In 2011 Sony Pictures had snagged the rights of the book and will produce the film for its subsidiary arm TriStar Pictures. Greg Kinnear stars in the lead role.
This will be quite intriguing and interesting. If Heaven Is For Real book has gathered a lot of uproar (both positive and negative) we will find out if the film will garner a lot more praises or spark further controversy.
Heaven Is For Real Book Review
Useful links for further reading
- Todd Burpo Author Profile | Biography And Bibliography | NewReleaseTuesday.com
Todd Burpo Author Profile, Biography and Bibliography at NewReleaseTuesday.com - Heaven Is For Real
A little boy’s astounding story of his trip to heaven and back. - Heaven Is for Real – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia