Left Behind: The Kids – Four kids face Earth’s last days together

Ah the 90s. The decade that ate up my childhood with school and games. I remember it fondly, even if it was the period of my life when I hated reading the most. Still there was this book series which every Evangelical Christian and his cousin rushed out to read, something about the Rapture and the adventures of those left behind.

Of course I read every book in the Left Behind series too. I didn’t get on the bandwagon early, though, a fanboy camping out at the bookstore waiting for the next installment to drop. No, I waited for my church to buy the books in bulk late in my high school years, and I devoured most them quickly. I lost patience towards Book 8 and didn’t return to them until a decade or so had passed, when I introduced them to my wife and we listened to the last few together on CD. I listened through the adult versions of the Left Behind series once more since then, and I may introduce them to my kids in another five years or so, but for the time being, we’re starting with this made-for-kids version which I had never touched before.

There’s a dystopian future waiting on our doorstep, ready to pounce like a thief in the night. The doctrine of the Rapture may be a theological quagmire, depending on who you’re talking to, but I’m not here to get into all that. Jenkins and LaHaye do well enough to explain and justify with Scripture their understanding of eschatology, and while some might disagree with it, we just can’t know. It’s as plausible a possibility as any, and the authors couch their opinions well in an entertaining story. I have no problem with that.

The kids’ version of the series follows the exact plot of the adult version and even contains some of the main characters, at least in passing. In an instant, millions of people across the world vanish, and the fallout is catastrophic. Readers are put in the outskirts of Chicago, IL, as we watch characters who had once known but had never accepted the truth of Christ’s imminent return suddenly face the harsh reality that they’ve been left behind. Since, however, the adult version of this plot was published before the kids’ and since the characters in the first story never communicated directly with the characters we now meet in the second, this kids’ series feels like it’s coming from the shadows.

Judd, Vicki, Lionel, and Ryan—the teenage protagonists in this series—rub elbows with characters from the first series. They occasionally overhear the same conversations. They see things the others saw. They know some of the same people. And yet the characters in this story rarely overlap with the characters in the other.

It makes me question why the authors wanted to set the story in Chicago at all. Wouldn’t any city work just as well? Would it really have taken more brain power for them to develop a new setting than to try to sneak these stories into one already established? I don’t know. I love writing and I love puzzles, so maybe they treated this like a game of some sort. Still, having read it all before, this just feels weird.

This introduction to the kids’ series, though, does contain unique characters that we can get to know and love. Judd, the wealthy 16 year old white kid from a Christian family has stolen his dad’s credit card and is running away to London (on Rayford Steele’s airplane, no less). Vicki, the white-trash party girl of 14, has watched her parents get religion and go wacky and wants nothing to do with it. Lionel, the 13 year old son of Lucinda Washington, has lied to his family about his love for Jesus and has been just fine with that. Finally Ryan, the 12 year old friend of Raymie Steele, has been unchurched all his life and doesn’t really know any better.

But when the Vanishings occur, each of these kids faces the cold reality that they had lived without Jesus. Some know it immediately. Others will take time. Their lives will collide, and from this point on we readers are sent on a similar path of spiritual exploration and adventure that we love from the other series. These books are shorter, slightly more innocent, and a good taste for the world which Jenkins and LaHaye have created. I’m looking forward to burning through them with my kids each night.

©2021 E.T.

Read More from Tim LaHaye and/or Jerry B. Jenkins:

• Left Behind (1995)
• Tribulation Force (1996)
• Crash in Cannibal Valley (1996)
• Terror in Branco Grande (1996)
• Disaster in the Yukon (1996)
• Book 1: The Vanishings (1998)
• Book 2: Second Chance (1998)
• The Mark (2000)
• The Merciful God of Prophecy (2001)
• Babylon Rising (2003)
• Mark’s Story (2007)