Step back in time with Sierra Jensen series

Robin Jones Gunn has written over 100 books, some of which have turned into Hallmark movies. She continues to write, host a podcast, and teach at conferences. I heard about her speaking at a conference that reminded me of her Sierra Jensen series, a YA series for girls 12 and up. Because I write contemporary YA, I revisited her Sierra Jensen series.

Gunn’s popularity continues, though the 12-book series was written in the late 1990s. I couldn’t renew my library loan because someone was waiting for the books I had.

Topics still relevant

While these stories of Sierra Jensen are set when people still made telephone calls on pay phones and landline telephones, the topics covered continue to be relevant.

The series start with Sierra, a high school junior, returning from a European mission trip with college students, to a new home and school in Oregon. Her parents moved while she was on the trip to live with her grandmother who suffers with dementia. Acclimating to her new situation becomes complicated because she refuses to accept the new changes. She also dreams of a man she met in Europe who attends a nearby college. He remains a character throughout the series.

In following novels, Sierra struggles to make new friends, has mixed feelings about dating, wrestles with tensions with her adopted sister, works through comparison problems, learns about sharing her faith with unbelievers, and finding her place in the world. Dating and the complications dating has with friends gets addressed. Sierra wrestles with judging others, learning other people’s painful secrets, and choosing to obey authority figures.

Faith weaved in naturally

Working through differences in friendships and choosing battles gets addressed also. What does God want versus what do people want? Another development is that her sister searches for her birth mother. The story shows how these choices affect others in a natural, unpreachy way. It feels like you’re looking in on a real family with their very real issues. What lies behind the choices?

As the series winds to an end, the theme of emotions and staying balanced in all relationships and the struggles that occur when leaving home come up.

Of all the books, the eleventh novel made me cry a few times. Since this emotional read includes a major life and death crises, the theme is about trusting God. Sierra graduates in this one. Sierra’s desire to tell her friend Amy about Christ blows up since Amy isn’t interested in talking about God. Sierra learns that people come together in a crisis and that we must let people make their own choices. Praying for others and how prayer and her life lessons relate stand out in this part of the story also.

The final novel, book twelve, shows what happens when Sierra jumps to conclusions without all the facts. She makes assumptions and judgments that harm her goals. My favorite part of this finale is that Sierra decides that concentrating on the most important relationship—Jesus—and letting God figure out the rest serves her best. I cried in this one too since it includes her feelings about leaving home and going to college, the excitement and the sorrow, and how she notices her Dad’s sorrow as he leaves her on campus.

Familiar challenges covered

Sierra comes from a close-knit, Christian family. She faces problems and challenges that teens face as they find their own way in this world. The characters in the stories feel like our neighborhood, school, and church friends. There are friends experiencing the trauma of divorce and questioning authority. Finding part-time work and juggling work, school, and extra curriculars create realistic lives for the characters.

If your teen enjoys stepping back in time and walking with other teens as they face similar decisions and experiences, check out The Sierra Jensen series and other novels by Robin Jones Gunn. For more about this author, please check her website.

(A few years ago, Victoria Kimble reviewed her Christy Miller series.)

Happy reading and Merry Christmas, friends!