Change Unleashed

Books

Escaping into imaginary worlds through a fictional book is fun indeed! But miracles start to happen when you invest more time into your dreams than simple entertainment.

Here is a collection of non-fiction books actually written by teens who dedicated themselves to changing the world. A selection of these books, including Kisses from Katie, Soul Surfer, Take Your Best Shot, It's Easy Being Green, and Be the Change, have Christian content as they strive to change the world.

Free the Children

This is the story that launched a movement.

At only 12 years old, Craig Kielburger was shocked to discover the realities of child labour faced by kids his own age throughout the developing world. Driven to take action and witness these conditions first-hand, he and his trusted mentor Alam embarked on a journey that would take him to places he'd never imagined.

Free the Children recounts Craig's remarkable odyssey across South Asia, meeting some of the world's most disadvantaged children and learning the truth behind the headlines. Be there with him as he explores slums and sweatshops, fighting to rescue children from the chains of inhumane conditions. Along the way, he makes lasting friendships, enjoys wild adventures and launches the movement that would explode into an international sensation.

Kisses from Katie

Katie Davis left over Christmas break of her senior year for a short mission trip to Uganda and her life was turned completely inside out. She found herself so moved by the people of Uganda and the needs she saw that she knew her calling was to return and care for them.

Katie, a charismatic and articulate young woman, is in the process of adopting thirteen children in Uganda and has established a ministry, Amazima, that feeds and sends hundreds more to school while teaching them the Word of Jesus Christ.

Chain Reaction

Rachel Scott and her killer Eric Harris both talked about starting a chain reaction. Eric used violence to kill and destroy at Columbine High School. But Rachel chose another path. In a personal creed she wrote one month before her death in the Columbine tragedy, she explained her conviction that if one person goes out of his or her way to show compassion, it will start a world-changing chain reaction ofkindness.

Soul Surfer

They say Bethany Hamilton has saltwater in her veins. How else could one explain the passion that drives her to surf? How else could one explain that nothing—not even the loss of her arm—could come between her and the waves? That Halloween morning in Kauai, Hawaii, Bethany responded to the shark's stealth attack with the calm of a girl with God on her side. Pushing pain and panic aside, she began to paddle with one arm, focusing on a single thought: "Get to the beach...." And when the first thing Bethany wanted to know after surgery was "When can I surf again?" it became clear that her spirit and determination were part of a greater story—a tale of courage and faith that this soft-spoken girl would come to share with the world.

Soul Surfer is a moving account of Bethany's life as a young surfer, her recovery after the attack, the adjustments she's made to her unique surfing style, her unprecedented bid for a top showing in the World Surfing Championships, and, most fundamentally, her belief in God. It is a story of girl power and spiritual grit that shows the body is no more essential to surfing—perhaps even less so—than the soul.

The Freedom Writers Diary

As an idealistic twenty-three-year-old English teacher at Wilson High School in Long beach, California, Erin Gruwell confronted a room of "unteachable, at-risk" students. One day she intercepted a note with an ugly racial caricature, and angrily declared that this was precisely the sort of thing that led to the Holocaust—only to be met by uncomprehending looks. So she and her students, using the treasured books Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo as their guides, undertook a life-changing, eye-opening, spirit-raising odyssey against intolerance and misunderstanding. They learned to see the parallels in these books to their own lives, recording their thoughts and feelings in diaries and dubbing themselves the "Freedom Writers" in homage to the civil rights activists "The Freedom Riders."

The Making of an Activist

Warning: this book will change you.

Full of vivid images and inspiring words, travelogues, poems and sparkling artwork, The Making of an Activist is more than just a scrapbook of Free The Children's remarkable evolution. It's a testament to living an engaged, active and compassionate life, painting an intimate portrait of passionate, powerful young activists.

Take Your Best Shot

Teen Austin Gutwein has taken his best shot several thousand times to help AIDS orphans in Africa and in the process has built a school and a medical clinic! Take Your Best Shot tells how one boy made an incredible difference in the lives of those without hope while challenging the reader to do the same.

It's Easy Being Green

It's refreshing to read a book not from the perspective of a theologian, philosopher, or professor, but rather from a young woman (actually a teen at the time of the original writing) who sees life in a new way. Don't underestimate the power and passion of young folks like Emma.

Be the Change

Most people think the average teenager isn't capable of much beyond hanging with their friends and wasting time. But Zach Hunter isn't your average teenager. And he's hoping to show you that you're not either.

Zach has been trying to end slavery around the globe. Most people (maybe even you) think that slavery has been over for a long time. But sadly, there are more people bound in slavery now than at any of the times we read about in our history books. Now Zach is working to end slavery and free the men, women, and children who are being held against their will.

Just look around the world and on the news and you'll find that there are plenty of things wrong with our planet---homelessness, hunger, global warming, AIDS...the list goes on and on. And we usually look at these problems and decide they're too big for us to do anything about. But Zach is proving that one person can make a difference. And in his book, he'll reveal the elements needed to make amazing changes in your world. In the end, he hopes you'll find the thing you're passionate about---and start making changes!

Making Change

Fundraising wunderkind Bilaal Rajan shares his tips for effective fundraising, using examples from his own amazing life to show how it can be done—and how you can have fun doing it. The second part of the book is a section entitled Eight Principles to Maximize Your Full Potential, which includes exercises to help you identify and attain your dreams.