Growing up with God and Empire

In this exquisitely written book Vandrick takes a postcolonial look at the experiences of missionary kids. Rigorous analysis of their memoirs and personal reflection are weaved together with sensitivity to produce an insightful and at times emotional account of their journeys. This is a stunning piece of work.

Vandrick's empathic yet unflinching reading of this book's at times painful accounts enables us to understand the contradictory discourses and historical forces swirling through and shaping the lives of these children and the adults they became. This highly original work is mandatory reading for all of us who seek to decode the myriad ways privilege is daily produced and reproduced.

In this remarkably rich book, Vandrick applies the past and lived experiences of 'missionary kids' to a critical discussion of Othering, gender, race and colonialism as they affect us all today. Her excellently accessible application of auto-ethnography and personal narrative brings these topics into everyday contexts of education and language.

This work provides much food for thought and a list of implications for English language educators that are especially pertinent to those who position themselves within the community of Christian English language educators.

Vandrick's work provides a fine example of how to thematically organize a document study, while also begging us to ask how the experiences of the memoirists Vandrick analyzes might be akin to those of many young people today who find themselves abroad - often attending international schools - as their parents pursue their economic interests, and what the impact of these schools and the implications of these interests might be.