The Blueprint: A Plan for Living Above Life’s Storms

Franklin is a musician and seven-time Grammy Award winner whose early life was anything but a blueprint for success. Yet succeed he did. Born to a teenage mom who didn’t want him and to a father he never knew, he was adopted by his aunt. Franklin was introduced to Christianity early on, but his home environment was harsh and unloving. Given his history, this artist’s future often seemed dismal, and yet Franklin tells his fans that God reached down and changed him, and slowly, but markedly, transformed his thinking and his lifestyle to one that followed a pattern of biblical manhood. Throughout the text, Franklin expounds upon faith, relationships, parenting, sex, and marriage, with a casual, energetic verve that will either win readers over or annoy those who find it disorganized and underedited. No doubt, Franklin’s story is told to ennoble men and women of faith, but much of the content comes across as put together in piecemeal fashion. (May)