New Book Review: Helium Farm

Title: Helium Farm

Author: Melinda Poling

Quote: "Uncle Theo seems to have hit an all-time low."

Blake's father is a chemist. His Uncle Theo is a farmer. His father has sent Uncle Theo a special new fertilizer made from helium to boost the farm's profits. Instead, the farm gets into trouble as the summer weather gets hotter and drier--helium-laced fruit start floating into the air, then dropping in inconvenient places all over northern California. Blake's father just feels that he needs Blake to come along and try to help on the farm. Blake wants to spend his time practicing with his Little League team, but feels obliged to help Uncle Theo.  

The problems created by testing new fertilizers, not to mention pesticides, should only be so funny and so easy to solve in real life. With lots of barnyard humor as the fruit splatter all over the farm, Blake bonds with the farm hands and helps them trap floating fruit on the way up. When their work seems not to be enough, Blake remembers about prayer. He's not mentioned praying before, but he is a very young Christian.

C.S. Lewis observed that sometimes God supplies amazing answers to prayer for new Christians, but nobody needs to count on such minor miracles recurring. 

The problem with this extremely appealing book for middle grade readers is that it may give a misleading idea about prayer. Blake is a very nice kid: he cares about his teammates, even during the week they've been giving him a hard time about stiking out; he doesn't seem close to the older sister who plays on his team or the brother who's just beginning to walk, but he writes about them with proper loyalty; he's intimidated by bigger, older farmhands, but he speaks to them with courage and humility; he plays hard; he works hard; he's qioet. smart, and tough. He's almost as terrific as your grandson, or my nephew. But God doesn't hand out special prayer hotlines as rewards, no matter how nice a person is. Blake is not better than some other sixth grade boy who might pray for his beloved uncle to succeed in business and, instead, see his uncle die. We might say that God blesses whom God chooses to bless,, or even take the pre-Christian view that God is too far above us to bless us at all.

If we note that Poling never actually says that God does anything merely because of Blake's prayers, that the characters in this story do what they need to do to create a happy ending, then we can enjoy this little idyll for what it is. In this life God doesn't promise us all of the happy endings we may deserve, but in the story, at least, Blake and his family deserve a happy ending and get one.