Just in time for the Christmas shopping season, publishers are sending their latest offerings out for the earnest consideration of the book-consuming public. Book buyers will no doubt snatch them up and offer them as loving gifts. For the record, I can't think of a gift more appropriate in our day of iPods and Twitter than a good book.

Barkdull's latest offering is a sweet -- if utterly predictable -- tale of the shepherd who journeys to Jerusalem to pray for his dying wife. She carries in her womb a child who has stopped moving, and she is bleeding and suffering to a point where the husband despairs for her life.

Taking with him a prized animal as a sacrifice, he begins a journey that will prove to be both surprising and rewarding for the young man.



Marcus Bach, the late great religious writer, once said: "The joy of the quest is in the questing." This proves true for our young shepherd. Along the way, he learns lessons of giving and sharing, and finds the presence of God in the faces of the neediest of our neighbors. When he approaches the temple empty-handed, with nothing but faith and hope, he learns that it is enough.

All of this happens as the long-awaited star appears in the sky announcing the birth of the Messiah.

The nicest part of this book, I thought, was the way Barkdull brings this period of history alive with details of family, culture and religious extremism that are accurate and fairly depicted. I was surprised to come away from this book with a better sense of life in Jesus' time than I had previously had.

Alas, in the end, all's well that ends well -- I love surprise endings and plot twists, avoiding pat endings. But in a book like this, perhaps there is no other way to go than a sappy but uplifting ending. There are a few surprises here, but none of them are believable.

But it doesn't seem that Barkdull is crafting a believable story here. Rather, his goal seems to be to develop a story about the importance of faith, of family and of the limitless love of God for even the least of us. Along the way, he utilizes familiar plotting and dialogue techniques, but he succeeds in what is clearly his ultimate goal -- the telling of a tale that will encourage and uplift readers.

In the end, "The Shepherd's Song" satisfies that part of the soul that wants to know that God is still at work in the world, and that he still moves men to do the right kind of work to move the kingdom ever closer to reality. Parents will love the story, and will enjoy telling it to their children.

Barkdull is a talented writer. I will enjoy the reading experience when he offers a more complex, unpredictable tale.