Awhile ago I scooped most of the MSM on Anne Rice's "return" to the Catholic Church(although as this LA Times interview reveals, she has quite a ways to travel before she's really back), and I was interested to read her new novel on Christ's boyhood, Out of Egypt.
She relies heavily on the (non-canonical --and for a reason!) apocryphal scriptures, so 7-year-old Jesus, not knowing his own power, kills a playmate on the first page (later bringing him back to life). But that's not the worst of it. The tone is so arch; it's supposed to be an older Christ telling us how it felt to be seven, but it seems to be told in the voice of an annoying child actor. Think Welch's Grape Juice Kid tells the life story of Jesus. Ugh. Will give you an update if it improves, but I'm not sure I'll acutally finish this one.
