Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent co-wrote this book when Todd Burpo's three-year-old son had appendicitis. When Colton's mother, Sonja, first noticed he was not feeling well she took him to the emergency room and was told that Colton had influenza, as all the tests for a possible appendicitis came back negative. As time passed on, Colton continuously kept throwing up, which is when Todd and Sonja knew that he did not just have influenza. When Todd and Sonja went to a different emergency room with Colton, they were told that Colton had to have an emergency appendectomy as he could possibly die. Months after surviving the emergency surgery to remove his appendix, Colton shared the story of how he left his body during surgery and went to heaven. Colton began describing events and people that seemed impossible for him to have known about. Examples include knowledge of an unborn sister miscarried by his mother in 1998 and details of a great-grandfather who had died 30 years before Colton was born. Colton also explained how he met Jesus riding a rainbow-colored horse and sat in Jesus' lap while angels sang songs to him. He also saw Mary kneeling before the throne of God and at other times standing beside Jesus.
Characters
Colton Burpo the three-year-old son of Todd Burpo and Sonja Burpo, was the one who this happened to. At the time of the incident, Todd Burpo was pastor at a Crossroads church in Nebraska. Sonja Burpo was a teacher at a local school. Cassie Burpo is the older sister of Colton Burpo. Pop was Todd Burpo's grandfather and Dr. O’Holleran was the doctor that performed the emergency appendectomy on Colton.
Response
Sales
Within ten weeks of its November 2010 release, the book debuted at No. 3 on the New York Times bestseller list; by January 2011 there were 200,000 copies in print; and it reached No. 1 in the Times's best-selling non-fiction paperback category in March 2011, remaining in the top 10 for some weeks.
Criticism
A variety of Christians have expressed questions regarding the book. The Berean Call, a Christian ministry and newsletter, cited the book for its "extra-biblical" and "problematic" claims, as well as the lack of any medical evidence that the boy was clinically dead during the surgery. Author and pastor John MacArthur has criticized the book for presenting an un-Biblical perspective on the afterlife. In an interview with The New Yorker magazine, Heaven Is for Real co-author Lynn Vincent expressed concern that Christians would find the book to be a "hoax" if she included people in heaven having wings. In 2015, Alex Malarkey – a boy with a similar story to Colton Burpo's – publicly recanted his own story and book The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven, stating that his near-death experience described in that book was fictional, and condemned Christian publishers and bookstores for selling popular "heaven tourism" books, which he said "profit from lies." Following Malarkey's statement, Colton Burpo said that while he acknowledged that some among the public had doubts about his account, he stood by Heaven Is for Real's contents nonetheless.
Awards
In less than just one year of being released, this book surpassed the 1 million sales and was awarded the Platinum sales Award. Then in 2014 after seeing 10 million copies, the book was then awarded the Diamond Sales Award.
