Today CNS is featuring the new series Gospel Time Trekkers, fiction for kids ages 6-9. A couple years ago Sr. Grace, when she was editor of our children’s magazine, started writing fiction for kids. “As an editor of a magazine for children, I started reading a lot of kids books. Each Saturday I would check out books from the library just to see what kids today were reading. I realized again the power of a good story, and the powerful influence what we read has on us. I had loved reading stories when I was growing up and I thought that fiction would be a great way to introduce kids to Jesus and help them see that he is part of their everyday lives. I called the series Gospel Time Trekkers since each book takes children ages 6-9 on a journey that imaginatively retraces biblical events through the experience of Hannah, Caleb, and Noah, modern kids just like them.”
Kids are naturally curious about what it would have been like to live in Jesus’ time. Besides satisfying their curiosity with a good story, the stories connect Scripture and liturgy to their everyday life and model for them Ignatian imaginative prayer.
Mark Hart, Executive Vice President, Life Teen and best-selling Catholic author said about the first volume in the series Shepherds to the Rescue: Shepherds to the Rescue is a great tale of friendship and heroism, offering young Catholic readers an interactive experience of popular Bible stories. Each story invites the young heart to engage Christ and His gospel in a personal way; it’s an introduction to lectio divina without your [young] reader even realizing it! The tales are great for both boys and girls—offering them face to face encounters with Scripture, framed in a way they will truly understand. For parents seeking a way to bring more Scripture and family discussion into their home—apart from Sunday Mass —this is a great tool and an engaging step forward.”
Summing up why she wrote the books, Sr. Grace says: “I want to give kids the desire to know Jesus…. I want children to know that all they have learned about Jesus aren't just stories," she said in an interview with Catholic News Service. "The people who lived when Jesus walked the earth were real people and their lives were forever changed. I hope that my books will awaken a desire to know and love Jesus more deeply in the hearts of my readers."
Discover the Gospel Time Trekker Series for yourself