In this episode we visit with Valerie Fentress about her books and helping our children embrace and understand their identity in Christ, the power of fairy tales, and finding good books for boys to read.
Our Guest: Valerie Fentress
Valerie Fentress is a children’s author seeking to encourage kids and those reading to them with simple stories filled with biblical truth. You can find out more about her and grab a copy of her 11-Day Devotional for SuperHero Fans at www.valeriefentress.com
Books Discussed in This Episode:
Transcript with Links:
Terrie:
Welcome to “Books That Spark,” a podcast for parents and caregivers, celebrating books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion, leading to teachable moments with our kids. Today we have a very special guest with us, Valerie Fentress. She’s a boy mom, a book lover, and she’s here to share with us about her books and share her heart with us today. Thank you, Valerie, for being here today.
Valerie:
I’m so happy to be here, Terrie.
Terrie:
Well, I love your books and I would love to just jump in starting talking about your two books you have out. Can you tell us a little bit about each one?
Valerie:
Of course. I have one book which is called Beneath the Hood. It’s just a retelling woven with biblical truth, which is a retelling of the Red Riding Hood story with a focus on what our identity is in the Lord, and just kind of making that comparison to the journey that Little Red Riding Hood goes on is very similar to our own Christian walks and how we can be tempted to step off the path and walk away from our king and the Lord, and just that we constantly have to remind ourselves of what our identity is and to encourage others to remember who they are in Christ. So that’s kind of that story. And then my other book is kind of a reclaiming of the Easter Bunny. It’s a book called An Easter Bunny’s Tale, and it’s walking through the events of Easter from the point of view of an Easter Bunny with the goal of taking the Easter Bunny character that is so prevalent in our culture, but pointing it to Christ instead of candy.
Terrie:
That’s awesome. And I love, in your blog you talk about what inspired the Little Red Riding Hood story was that picture of the girl straightening her crown, and I’ve seen that on social media and I just love that that inspired you to write that story. It’s really awesome.
Valerie:
It’s one of those quotes that says that “On our darkest days when I feel inadequate, unloved and unworthy, I remember whose daughter I am and I straighten my crown.” And just those words, inadequate, unloved, and unworthy were just words that resonated with me, because I feel those in my own life, and have seen my sons struggle with that sense of unworthiness, and just because of the way culture seems to put pressure on us, and it just resonated with my heart. And I was like, wow, what would it look like to really claim our identity in Christ? To straighten our crown? To be like, “Yes, I am a child of a king, and I am loved, I am worthy, and I am equipped for the task that the Lord has for us.”
Terrie:
Yes. Well, and there’s so much in that story too. Not only that, but where the girl is being hounded by the lies and by the wolves, I love how she handles it. She holds onto the scripture or to the truth she knows. She holds onto truth. She’s not yelling at the wolves, she’s not having little hissy fits, and she’s not hiding from them. She’s just head on with the truth. And then of course, I love the ending. I don’t want to give it all away, but, there’s so many biblical nuggets that we can pull out of this little story book, I think it’s amazing. I just love it. I want you to kind of tell me a little bit about your heart, the desire you have for your ministry. I know in your blog you talk a lot about how to share biblical truth with our kids and just making that real to them. At what age do you think we as parents should really start talking to our kids about these truths?
Valerie:
Day one. The day that they’re born. I recently did a blog post about Moses and just how, looking at his mother, she had basically three years before she turned Moses over to the Princess of Egypt. And I mean, the first three years of Moses’ life, she instilled his identity as an Israelite, his compassion for his people, and his desire to serve God. And that was all just in the first three years of his life. And so anytime that we are with our kids, no matter their age, we can be singing God’s truth over them. Reading small, simple Bible stories. Every book that we read is an opportunity to communicate God’s truth. Every walk outside, every opportunity in our day is a chance to be like, “God made this beautiful day, God is with us in this.” And kids want to feel loved, and worthy, and adequate, just like we do as an adult. And to have those truths spoken over them as really young kids I feel will only help their confidence as a believer as they get older.
Terrie:
It’s planting those seeds, isn’t it? Early on. On your blog also, you have several free items I want to make sure people know about resources that they can access. Can you share about some of those that you offer?
Valerie:
Of course. I’m a book lover and finding good books is often hard to do from time to time. So I do have a book list for boys because I feel like there’s definitely some books out there for boys that are kind of like I don’t know if I really want to have my kids reading them. So, I have a book list for boys just kind of going by age group from zero to toddler to preschool to elementary age, and even teen and young adult–just books that have Christian values, books that have at least character qualities that we desire as Christian parents to instill in our children is one freebie that I have out there as well as just a lot of talking about how to reclaim our holidays. Even like random holidays like St. Patrick’s Day and Memorial Day. How can we use these situations, like I was saying earlier, that we come across every year. How can we use those celebrations and point them to Christ? Mm-Hmm. And of course some parenting tips as well. What are the road trips? You know, survival guides as well as just how to insert biblical truth in our everyday are a lot of the things that I have on my website.
Terrie:
That’s awesome. We are kindred spirits definitely because that’s exactly what I’m hoping to do through this podcast and my blog and all that I offer as well. I think it’s so important. And parents are so busy they don’t have time to read every book before they read it to their child and prepare for any of the awkward questions that may arise. That’s wonderful though. A book list specifically for boys is so needed. So many books are geared toward girls it seems.
Valerie:
It is, yes. Because typically girls get into reading a lot easier and boys are very busy. And so finding books that connect with our boys and make them want to sit down and read them is a challenge, but they’re out there.
Terrie:
Yeah. And both my boys are avid readers. They love reading. So I’m very thankful when we find some great books for them to read.
Valerie:
Yes, exactly.
Terrie:
So what do you have on the Horizons? Do you have any other books coming out soon or any projects you’re working on?
Valerie:
Well right now I am in the process of looking for a publisher for a non-fiction picture book series kind of talking about the silly questions that our kids ask about God–kind of taking those silly questions and communicating God’s truth to kids. So trying to get some feelers out there to see who might be interested in publishing that as well as a couple other projects in the pipeline that I hope to announce soon.
Terrie:
Cool. Oh that’s awesome. Well definitely let me know when you’ve got them coming out so we can do another interview and share that with our listeners. That would be awesome.
Valerie:
I would love that.
Terrie:
And I always like to ask my guests if they can share, first of all their favorite picture book when they were a child, what was that? And then what was your favorite one to read to your boys?
Valerie:
Okay. My favorite picture book when I was a kid was Harold and the Purple Crayon.
Terrie:
Love it.
Valerie:
I’m a very visual person, very artsy. I like to draw and do things. And so this character, Harold walks through this book with this purple crayon looking for his home. Where is my window? Where is my bed? I’m tired. And his creativity sends him on this journey of him creating this world with this purple crayon as he’s looking for a way to get to bed. And just the creativity and switch in perspectives is what just illuminated my own creativity. And because I always look at the world a little differently. And so that book really spoke to me.
Terrie:
That’s great.
Valerie:
As for reading to my boys, I have three boys and we are always reading around here. I have two that are kind of reluctant readers and one who is an avid reader like myself, which I’m having a hard time finding books for him because he reads through all of them so fast. It’s fun to watch him grow. But my favorite book to read to my kids when they were little is The Squire and the Scroll. I have not seen a whole lot of buzz about it, but it is a really neat story about a squire to a knight and his journey of holding onto truth and remembering who he is as he is on this quest from his king. And so it’s again, another really great analogy and really speaks to boys and wanting to fight the dragon and do the hard things and just that inevitable desire to fight evil and to come out on the other side victorious. It is one book that my boys even to this day still love picking up and reading.
Terrie:
How cool. And do you remember who wrote that one?
Valerie:
Ooh, no I don’t. It’s called The Squire and the Scroll. It’s really good.
Terrie:
It sounds familiar to this one about Little Red Riding Hood.
Valerie:
It’s a little familiar. Yeah. I didn’t realize it until I was talking about it like Oh yeah.
Terrie:
So I meant to ask you at the beginning, So are you the writer and illustrator of your books?
Valerie:
I am not. I am just the writer, but I had worked with a contracting group for the pictures of my stories. It was kind of a fun experience working with an illustrator and she was actually from Indonesia, and it was really neat to have a conversation about fairy tales and this story that she knew, and it was just interesting to see how fairy tales really go across all boundaries, and communicate ideas, morals, and truths no matter where you’re from.
Terrie:
Yeah, I saw that on your blog as well, about why we need to read fairy tales to our kids, and I love that because I’ve shared on my podcast before that I think they’re great and a lot of people shy away from them, because of the magic, because of the witches, and things like that in some of them, but there’s so many things we can glean from them and like you said, they cross boundaries culturally with people cause we all know the stories so.
Valerie:
Right.
Terrie:
Yeah. I love your blog post. I will put a link to that in the show notes so people can access it, cause I think it’s good. Okay, I’ve asked my questions so we still have a couple minutes. What is something you would like to share that I haven’t touched on?
Valerie:
I don’t know, I really think you’ve kind of gotten to the heart of all of it because my books, and even just what I highlight on my own blog and book interviews that I do is just, they’re a great tool for communicating new ideas and helping us to remember truths about ourselves, about God. I tell my husband that books are a love language and he doesn’t really believe me, but…
Terrie:
I like that a lot. That’s great. I noticed on your blog that you also do school visits and so how would people contact you if they want you to come and speak or speak through Zoom with their groups?
Valerie:
On my website there’s a contact email that you can send me an email and we can find out a time to do that. I would love to talk with kids about either my books or just the writing process cause I know that that’s really big and just instilling a love of books and kids is such a big heart of mine. So anyone who would be interested in having their zoom call, I would love to do that.
Terrie:
Okay, well I will have the link in the show notes and we will get people connected with you and that will be fantastic, so. Well, thank you so much, I know the time has gone fast, but I’ve really enjoyed talking to you these few minutes, and I hope people will pick up your books and share them with their kids cause I think they’re really great. So thank you.
Valerie:
Thank you Terrie. I appreciate it.
Terrie:
Thank you for joining us for “Books that Spark,” a podcast, celebrating books that spark imagination, emotion, questions and discussions as we disciple our children and help them follow Christ with their whole hearts. If you would like to connect with Valerie, as she said, she has a link on her website where you can message her or email her to ask her to come and speak or visit at your schools or your events. And her website is valeriefentress.Com/Home is her homepage; back slash books is her book page, so you can find her very easily if you just Google her name and her website will come up. But on her website, as we mentioned, she offers several free items. I downloaded a devotional she’s got available right now that is called Are Your Kids’ Superhero Fans. She has a freebie right now that if you go to her website you can download that’s devotionals for your kids called Simply Super Miracles that show Jesus is the best superhero and the graphics on it are all superhero-y, comic-book-y, and they’re just cute.
Terrie:
And if you’d like to connect with me, of course you can reach me at terriehellardbrown.Com and you can comment on this podcast on my website under my podcast transcripts. If you’d like to sign up for my mailing list, you can do that as well. It’s on my main page. You can sign up, and you will receive notifications when we post a blog or podcast. You’ll get several freebies as well from my website. They’re available even for those who don’t sign up for the mailing list. But when you sign up, you get extra freebies that no one has access to without being on the mailing list. And you also get the legacy email that is specifically geared for us as parents and those of us who are followers of Christ and growing in our faith–some encouraging emails to challenge you in your walk with God. I appreciate you being here today. If you like this episode, would you please like and share? We really appreciate it and we hope you have a great day.
Your Host: Terrie Hellard-Brown
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials.
Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion leading to teachable moments with our kids. Her podcast posts each Tuesday morning.
Her blog posts discuss living as a disciple of Christ while parenting our children. She challenges us to step out of our comfort zones to walk by faith in obedience to Christ and to use the nooks and crannies of our lives to disciple our children.
Terrie uses her experiences as a mother of four (three on “the spectrum”), 37 years in ministry (15 in Taiwan), and 32 years teaching to speak to the hearts of readers.
Her motto is “Life doesn’t have to be perfect to be WONDERFUL” and keeps her childlike joy by writing children’s stories, delighting over pink dolphins, and frequently laughing till it hurts.