Blog Book Tour | “A Boy back from HEAVEN” (a true story) by Celeste & Matthew Goodwin

Posted Friday, 16 January, 2015 by jorielov , , , 0 Comments

Ruminations & Impressions Book Review Banner created by Jorie in Canva. Photo Credit: Unsplash Public Domain Photographer Sergey Zolkin.

Acquired Book By: I am a regular tour hostess for blog tours via Cedar Fort whereupon I am thankful to have such a diverse amount of novels and non-fiction titles to choose amongst to host. I received a complimentary copy of “A Boy back from Heaven” direct from the publisher Plain Sight Publishing (imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc) in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Inspired to Read:

Heaven is for Real was a book I was going to read until my Mum read it ahead of me, and we decided that it was simply a heap more fun to converse what the contents were about than for both of us to read it separately! This is something that we have done for quite a long while (years truly!), as we like to experience the stories we find through the way in which we each re-tell the heart of what was inside the books! We get into these wicked stellar fireside chats, including whilst out and about at coffeehouses where it is not unlikely for people to overhear our conversation and believe we’re speaking about those who are living rather those that are writ in a fictional world! Laughs. Except in this case, the boy truly did live and have an experience of Heaven which the world has since embraced.

For Heaven is for Real, it was one of a succession of books we were discovering about walks in Heaven, as ahead of this one, we had learnt of The Five People You Meet in Heaven which is the book my Da read prior to the televised adaptation which we all watched together. This was quite lovely as Da took the reins to lead the discussion before the film started, and then afterwards we all reflected on what was in the adaptation and the wider scope of the story itself. 90 Minutes in Heaven was quite a bit more intense, which is why I opted not to read it personally, but I did see the film adaptation and I must confess it is not for the faint of heart, as the emotions are quite epic but well placed.

There are times in my life where I find myself able to drink in a hard-hitting story through a film adaptation a bit easier than a book — in part, because I have an empathic heart who is sensitive to the lives others have led and the circumstances that have given them trauma. Even good trauma is hard to read at times because your still connected through your heart to what the other person lived. Other times, such as seeing A Boy back from Heaven coming up on tour, felt like one I could handle whilst reading.

What inspires me the most about all of these stories, is how convicting they are as conjoined memories of a place that not all of us are able to see ahead of time but how their memories become stitched together in ways that are truly a key to how Heaven isn’t as far away nor as unimaginable to believe as some might think. I love these stories because they speak to the root of the human condition and to the human’s acceptance of what cannot yet be seen but what is plausible and accepted on faith. I truly believe that each of our stories has a measure of importance for each person who picks them up; as we never truly know how many lives we can touch simply by having shared our story with someone else.

Stories are our lifeblood as much as they are way of communicating ideas; the true stories stitch a special thread into our connective tapestry and give us a grounding of where we are and where we can go next. It is part of how we understand our humanity as much as it is a beautiful uplift of reflective narrative on how each of us has so much to learn and gain simply by embracing the life we’ve been given to walk.

Blog Book Tour | “A Boy back from HEAVEN” (a true story) by Celeste & Matthew GoodwinA Boy back from Heaven (a true story)
by Celeste Goodwin
Source: Direct from Publisher

"Mommy, are you sure you're not mad that I didn't want to come back?"

Celeste and Billy Goodwin sighed in deep relief when their four-year-old son, Matthew, finally came to consciousness after critical surgery. But just when they seemed to be in the clear, Matthew's eyes rolled back in his head, and he became unresponsive for several harrowing minutes.

Doctors called the episode a medical anomaly, but what really happened can only be described as a miracle. When Matthew returned, it was with a perspective and wisdom about life and love that was far beyond his years. Experience the serenity of heaven through a child's eyes as you read Matthew's true account of his walk with angels and his shocking revelation months later about the angels' identities.

Not to be confused with a similar title:

The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven by Alex Malarkey (info)

Genres: Inspirational Fiction & Non-Fiction, Memoir, Non-Fiction



Places to find the book:

Borrow from a Public Library

Published by Plain Sight Publishing

on 11th March, 2014

Format: Paperback

Pages: 126

Published By: Plain Sight Publishing (@PlainSightBooks), an imprint of Cedar Fort Inc.
Converse via: #ABoyBackFromHeaven
Available Formats: Paperback, Ebook

About Celeste Goodwin

Celeste Goodwin, pediatric hypertension advocate, is a Christian speaker, patient advocacy presenter, national award-winning mom, and founder of the National Pediatric Blood Pressure Awareness Foundation. Her passion to help others is evident by the dynamic presentations in which she uses humor and her love of God to encourage change. Through her writing and speaking, Celeste encourages others to never lose faith and to always rely on the power of prayer. She ignites thought provoking transformations in the hearts and minds of those she communicates with. Her effectiveness is evident by the honors she has received, such as being selected by Disney owned Babble.com, as one of 2011’s Top 100 Moms Changing the World in the education division. Celeste was honored as Baton Rouge City Social Magazine’s January 2012 Extraordinary Woman. Celeste has appeared on local and regional news, radio, and television programs. She has also been featured in varying print media.

My Review of A Boy back from Heaven:

What I felt was the most beautiful entrance into the story of Matthew’s walk with Angels is by relaying the events leading up to what caused his sudden exit from his life and his immediate entrance into Heaven. This was told with a tenderness only a Mum could express and explain, with a fervent intuitive reckoning of a fear of what was not yet known but enveloped the family into a situation that would change their lives. Mothers have been given a keen sense of awareness on behalf of their children and their families; an internal alert system that defies modern science. I have witnessed this intuition in my own family, and seeing it alive inside Mrs. Goodwin helped anchour me into the growing story.

By starting at the on-set of Matthew’s experience and then arching the story backwards, towards when the Goodwins decided to have their children (they have two, Matthew and Connor; two years apart with Connor being the youngest) you are given a back-story within the heartache of the present. A story that is continuing to be written, as this story starts in 2007 but with each year they step further away from that fateful Spring, I believe new sequences of what has been learnt or understood could be conveyed. Most of our lives cannot be fully explained nor properly understood until there is a bit of distance from the events that define our level of perception and understanding.

The Goodwins openly shared how they wanted to start their family soon after they married, as they were each in their late twenties. By the time their two boys were conceived and welcomed into their heart and home, they felt everything had fallen into place to where they could sit back a bit and enjoy life as it unfolded. They didn’t have an easy route towards parenthood but they were faithful in accepting their time would come to become parents when the timing was right for them. Moving forward to when Matthew was four years old, he had a succession of health issues that revolved around his ears where constant infections and doctor visits started to stack up on his young life.

I know from my own past, the more your visiting doctors and receiving antibiotics the less ability you have to recoup from each bout of illness you succumb too. He was scheduled for surgery to help his ears and this was the surgery that would change not only his life but his family, his family’s friends, and the community as well. You do not always have the foresight to realise how important one moment of your life can transform everything that had come before it or anything that would come after.

I loved how prior to the surgery Matthew’s father, Mr. Goodwin had his intuition on high alert whereas going into surgery Mrs. Goodwin was not as alarmed. This is point of truth to life — sometimes we do not get advance foreboding knowledge of what is coming next, sometimes it is the person next to us who gets those instincts and then, ours kick in lateron. I think it is because for each situation, especially when it comes to parenthood — one parent has to stay grounded and calm, giving the other free rein to listen closer to their intuition, to key into what they can feel or simply know through their faith without understanding what is causing the concern.

This happens in a lot of families, and I know it has happened in mine too. All of us have to sort out how to approach a crisis and/or an emergency through a different series of steps leading into and out of what happens. I believe we’re all given certain gifts at different times through that stage, in order to best serve the moment of where we are when we need the most strength.

When Matthew starts to talk about his experiences during his near-death experience, his first concern is that his parents may or may not be upset with him on what he is about to reveal to them. I think all of us when we’re children, knowing that we have something important to tell our parents, the last thing we want to deal with is the disappointment of making them angry at us. The way Matthew reveals what he observed and how he felt, matched my own impressions of what will be found when we cross over. I think that is one of the beautiful bits to stories about Heaven; there are certain resounding like-minded impressions about what can be found there, that we can each find something to relate to in the stories themselves. (a bit of a nod back to what I refer to as our interconnectedness whilst we’re on Earth)

The most stirring part of the story for me was who turnt out to be Matthew’s Angels — mostly as again, this re-affirms and connects with my own beliefs and impressions. I was raised in a close-knit family, and whilst I had loved and lost most of my family by the time I was twenty-four, I had this strong sense that they were never quite as far away from me as I felt they could be at the time they died. Each of us walks an individual path of faith, and it is where our individual beliefs take us that is central to who we are, yet whilst reading A Boy back from Heaven it clearly visualises the thought that all of us are more connected to each other than we realise. Family to family, soul to soul, we have an inherent connection to what we perceive, what we feel, and what we instinctively are attune and aware of as a whole.

My thoughts on how the story is written inside this non-fictional account:

Part journalling memoir and part inherent truth out of a young boy who journeyed where few can return, this non-fictional account of Heaven gives you an honesty of living truths. The pace of the story unfolds like a conversation you are having with a close friend, giving you just enough of the details to keep the story fluid but with an inclination of setting up the climax by not giving out too much, too soon.

Goodwin allows the grace of her son’s experiences in/out of hospitals and a return to a bit of normalcy inside his childhood years to give the story it’s breadth. You cannot help but read this with a pure uplift of joy in your spirit, reading their harrowing tales of medical crisis after crisis, yet with such a strong unwavering faith that guided them each step of the journey itself. This is a journey a family took together, grew stronger out of the experience and dedicated their lives to share the bounty of enlightenment they were blessed to be given to each of us who chooses to listen to their story.

Read this blog post & watch the vlog to receive an update on the Goodwins!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

This book review is courtesy of:

Cedar Fort Publishing & Media

on behalf of their

The Boy from Heaven blog tour via Cedar Fort Publishing & Media

Reader Interactive Question:

Do you enjoy reading or watching stories about Heaven as much as I do? What is your greatest gift in spending time listening or reading another person’s story of their impressions of Heaven?

Please take note of the Related Articles as they were hand selected due to being of cross-reference importance in relation to this book review. This applies to each post on my blog where you see Related Articles underneath the post. Be sure to take a moment to acknowledge the further readings which are offered.

{SOURCES: Book Cover of “A Boy back from Heaven”, the Cedar Fort badge, the Book Synopsis, and the Author Biography were provided by Cedar Fort, Inc. and used by permission. Ruminations & Impressions Book Review Banner created by Jorie in Canva. Photo Credit: Unsplash Public Domain Photographer Sergey Zolkin. Post dividers badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2015.

Related Articles:

The Five People you Meet in Heaven – (en.wikipedia.org)

90 Minutes in Heaven – (en.wikipedia.org)

Heaven is for Real – (en.wikipedia.org)

About jorielov

I am self-educated through local libraries and alternative education opportunities. I am a writer by trade and I cured a ten-year writer’s block by the discovery of Nanowrimo in November 2008. The event changed my life by re-establishing my muse and solidifying my path. Five years later whilst exploring the bookish blogosphere I decided to become a book blogger. I am a champion of wordsmiths who evoke a visceral experience in narrative. I write comprehensive book showcases electing to get into the heart of my reading observations. I dance through genres seeking literary enlightenment and enchantment. Starting in Autumn 2013 I became a blog book tour hostess featuring books and authors. I joined The Classics Club in January 2014 to seek out appreciators of the timeless works of literature whose breadth of scope and voice resonate with us all.

"I write my heart out and own my writing after it has spilt out of the pen." - self quote (Jorie of Jorie Loves A Story)

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Posted Friday, 16 January, 2015 by jorielov in 21st Century, Balance of Faith whilst Living, Based on an Actual Event &/or Court Case, Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Tour Host, Cedar Fort Publishing & Media, Debut Author, Debut Novel, Indie Author, Inspirational Fiction & Non-Fiction, Medical Fiction, Memoir, Modern Day, Non-Fiction, Nurses & Hospital Life, Post-911 (11th September 2001)




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