Students at all levels face stressors that can undermine their ability to retain what they’ve learned. In Rooted & Rising, author Opeyemi Jaunty-Aidamenbor discusses how good study habits and a strong Christian faith can turbo-charge those efforts and get better results.

The author builds each chapter by defining its topic and laying out some practical suggestions, adding a personal anecdote, then a prayer, prompts for prayerful reflection, and a few pages of workbook-style questions to fill in and contemplate. She covers time management, note-taking, test prep, and other aspects of student life, and adds Bible verses that may relate or be inspiring in conjunction with the topic. A list of resources at the end balances Christian literature with academic reference books for further exploration.

Even at a mere 99 pages in length, the book has a lot of filler; the dedication, foreword, author’s note, two pages of workbook material per chapter (worksheets are identical from chapter to chapter), acknowledgements, resource list, and index of scripture citations add up to a third of the book, doing nothing to further its goals. Yet it manages to offer an impressive amount of practical information as well as gentle spiritual encouragement. An early discussion of growth (as opposed to fixed) mindset notes, “In God’s economy, failure is never final–it is redirection.”

There are no deep dives into things like mind mapping or the Eisenhower Matrix, which are discussed here, but they offer enough detail that readers can choose whether to explore them further.

Rooted & Rising gives a useful overview of many proven study methods and links them to faith as a way to manage the practical and emotional demands of academia. Even the nonreligious will find information to help navigate their schooling here, but Christian students will especially appreciate the way faith is incorporated into the instruction.

Also available in hardcover and ebook.