There are so many books out there, and never enough time to read them before your son or daughter comes begging to plunge into the pages. It can be so difficult to determine what to let a voracious reader devour, I know. This is your shortcut, so you know a little of what to expect in my books.
Why the age stipulation?
First, a quick explanation of my age suggestions (which you will find near the summaries of each series): our family is pretty conservative in what we let our younger members read; Narnia perhaps about age 7 or 8, the Hobbit and Robert Louis Stevenson more 9 or 10, Alex Rider and his ilk perhaps about age 13, while the Lord of the Rings? Oh not until at least 14, likely older. I have tailored my age suggestions to what I personally would let my younger siblings and nieces read.
What horrible gunk is in your stories?
I love a good clean story, with plotlines that make you think, keep you guessing, hopefully offer a few chuckles along the way, and have characters with depth enough to stick with you afterwards. You will never find a cuss word, blood and guts, or racy scene of any sort in any of the tales I weave. However (my Faery Tales excepted), you will find perilous situations, murders, even torture (though no gruesome details), along with secular worldviews (though these are discussed and held up to the light of Christian truth).
After all...
All except my Faery Tales are young adult books. I expect my readers to be old enough to recognize this world is a broken place. Things are not as they should be, the Earth is crooked and bleeding and groaning with agony. Peril and danger are around us every time we step out the door, and even if we hide inside the house all day, we can’t escape it (even toasters can explode, you know[1]). Bad guys are real. They are sometimes very bad. And very mistaken. The fallen world around us holds up ideals that are not ideal, and truths that sound right on the face of it, but lead to horrors and miseries that make mankind weep and creation itself groan. But a clear beam of light cuts through all the despairs and lies of man and gives us hope and reality and truth. We have a shining hope. We know redemption will come to every inch of this broken world, renewal and perfection, and pure, unhindered happiness will once more saturate this globe. We can see glimpses of it now, in an innocent child’s laughter, spring’s buds and brightness, the sun that rises after the night…and we can laugh in the midst of all the darkness. Because on God’s people shines the light of hope: and hand in hand with hope walks joy. Joy in our transcendent God, the One that transcends all our circumstances, no matter how terrible, and takes us with Him. Joy in knowing nothing can pluck us from His hand, and our eternal happiness is already completely assured. And joy in doing something right now, something that truly pleases our Father God. This world is broken. And broken things need fixed. We have the duct tape and first aid kit of God’s truth in our belt, along with our weapon of God’s word, and we are called to use it.
Get up off the couch. This broken place needs help. And you have the strength, duty, and tools to change the world.
This is what a reader will find in my books.
[1] I personally have never known this to happen, but Simeon Lee has had three explode on him. Of course two were due to Vincent’s playing about with the mechanics, attempting to turn the simple toaster oven into a singing mechanical monkey, and then absent-mindedly forgetting to mention it to his boss. Simeon didn’t find the tinny music and monkey-waving-coconuts before the explosion comforting.