Book Review: Winning Balance













20 Year old Shawn Johnson is just a normal person. She has dreams, hopes, and aspirations just like anybody else.

 But unlike anybody else, Shawn Johnson is an Olympic champion. She holds 1 gold and 3 silver medals in women's gymnastics, and earned the title of U.S all-around champion two years in a row, 2007, and 2008, and was the all-around world champion in 2008.

 At an age when most people are halfway through college, Shawn has made it all the way to fame, with a mirror ball from the eighth season of ABC's Dancing With The Stars to her credit, as well as numerous television appearance's with well-known personalities, including Oprah, Letterman, and Leno.

 But despite all the awards and fame, Shawn insists that she's really just a regular person. Her book Winning Balance: What I've learned so far about love, faith, and living your dreams is the perfect platform for her to share her story with the world. Her writing shines through as honest, genuine, and deeply felt.

 Shawn is perhaps a bit different from most gymnasts in that her parents never forced her to train, gymnastics started out as safe way for her to tumble around the way she loved to do, and because of that, Shawn's love for gymnastics grew into a passion that took her all the way to Beijing in 2008, and into the world's spotlight.

Although she wasn't a regular church attender when she was younger, Shawn has grown in her faith, and demonstrates that a relationship with God doesn't grow out of staring toward the front of a church for two hours a week and leaving, it grows from a desire to know God intimately, and from God's desire to bring us into His kingdom.

 Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Because I was not familiar with Shawn or her career as a gymnast, I keenly felt every element of suspense she weaved into Winning Balance. I clapped every time she had a gymnastic victory, I cried along with her when she tore her ACL, and I laughed to myself when she let her wit shine through the pages.

 Anyone who is interested in gymnastics, Shawn Johnson, or her faith journey will enjoy this book at all. It is well-written and concisely communicated, and a joy to read.

 Having just announced her retirement from gymnastics on June 3rd, 2012, Shawn Johnson is standing on the edge of a new chapter in her life, and wherever God and her passion for gymnastics take her, I will be a cheering fan.

You can access the official website here.



 I received this book for free from Tyndale Momentum for review purposes.

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