Title: The Starfish Island Gang: Mystery of The Beach House
Author: Brenda Mize Garza
Publisher: BMG Books
ISBN: 9781956529555
Pages: 121
Genre: Mystery, Children’s Literature, Christian fiction
Reviewed by: Lily Amanda

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The Starfish Island Gang: Mystery of The Beach House is a profoundly inspiring book by author Brenda Mize Garza, and the first in the series: The Starfish Island Gang. In the otherwise calm and quiet town of Shell Cove on Starfish Island, lies two unseen worlds, one is friendly and the other is not. The humans living there do not normally know it except for a gang of five children: Lee, Michael, Allen, Andrew, and Paige whose adventurous spirit led them to an old beach house which had laid abandoned for years.  Once they begin to explore and uncover some hidden truths, each member of the group has a spiritual encounter and discovers they all have special gifts as they learn about the unseen world. As they face life challenges, they lean on the Word of God for help.

Brenda Mize Garza has written a cogent narrative that presents the themes of responsibility, forgiveness, and friendship perfectly. Further, she has explored the age-old topic of good against evil. Her masterful blend of Christian concepts and literary fiction is well done. I had a deep spiritual awakening reading this organic embroidery as the concept of angels versus demons and their actions was well displayed.

With bold illustrations, The Starfish Island Gang: Mystery of The Beach House is both powerful and entertaining, and a great start to a sequel. Using well-crafted characters and clear dialogues between them, the author puts forth wonderful concepts about faith and what true Christianity is all about. We get to know about the lives of these children but Andrew’s character is drawn a lot more intimately and readers get to follow him and his opinion about different aspects of life.

I loved how the author draws Charlie, one of the characters, to help readers conceptualize the activities of evil beings in humans. Additionally, the author does a great job giving readers Charlie’s background story which helps relate with him. The dialogues too, are easy to follow and moving as well. For example, I loved how the author used Ms. Martha as a character to explain the concept of putting on the armor of God as described in the Epistles.

Overall, The Starfish Island Gang: Mystery of The Beach House by Brenda Mize Garza is a well-grounded Christian fiction book that keeps one engrossed from beginning to end. It serves as a much-needed inspiration to young readers and Christians as well, seeking to learn the truth about God and to navigate through life in true discernment.