Children's ✦ Penny’s Take
Not Without Courage
T. Elizabeth Renich · 1996
68/100
👎 Skip It
A San Diego Public Library medallion winner set at Gettysburg, featuring a strong female protagonist doing genuinely difficult moral work in a battlefield context — the bones are solid. But the explicit YWAM faith framing narrows its appeal sharply outside Christian homeschool circles, and mainstream critical visibility is essentially zero. A good fit for its target audience, but not a broad recommendation.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: Explicit Christian faith content from YWAM publisher; battlefield violence consistent with Civil War subject matter. We still scored it 68; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
📚 Buy the book ↗📱 Read on Kindle ↗🎧 Listen on Audible ↗ affiliate links · support the site, never the verdict
As an Amazon Associate and Audible affiliate, Penny earns from qualifying purchases. This never affects the verdict — see our affiliate disclosure.
Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
Faith & family safety82
Substance / usefulness68
Craft & writing65
Originality62
Evidence & accuracy72
Hype vs delivers65
Age-fit72
👁 Human-eye gut-check65
Penny’s verdict68
Cross-pollinate