I’m so excited to share with you my appearance on the Read-Aloud Revival Podcast with Sarah Mackenzie. We talked all about Fantasy Books for Christian Kids. It’s episode #41, and you can find it right HERE.
If you didn’t grow up reading fantasy, you might be skeptical of its benefits for your kids. In my experience, fantasy helps kids (and adults) flesh out ideas that are otherwise hard to grasp. Like the incarnation. Like sin being as impossible to remove as Eustace’s dragon scales in Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Like learning to put someone’s needs above your own at any cost like Janner in the Wingfeather Saga. Like learning to act courageously even when you feel afraid in the books of ND Wilson. Like understanding that the Holy Spirit is not something you control, but someone that can help you when you are in a right relationship with God like in the Spirit Flier series. Jesus taught in parables for a reason. Word images have a way of sticking with us and making things clear on an intuitive level.
Fantasy strips away the familiar to reveal the universal; it takes an abstract idea and gives it flesh. Sometimes we can understand things more clearly and on a different level if we see them in a different guise like a parable or a fairy tale.
Sarah and I talk about this and a lot more in the podcast about Fantasy Books for Christian Kids, and I hope you’ll hop over and listen to it.
If you’ve hopped back over here from the Read-Aloud Revival Podcast, you might be interested in signing up for my newsletter so you can get my new book list: BEYOND NARNIA: MIDDLE GRADE FANTASY (Don’t worry, I won’t spam you or share/sell your information.)
Carolyn
Wonderful news!
Look forward to listening later today 🙂
Thanks, Erin! 🙂
Omigosh! Awesome! I am listening now. 🙂
I loved your interview on RAR! Thank you! Did you mention that all the E.Nesbit books on LibriVox are good? We already have The Book of Dragons and my older sons (2, 4, 6, and 8) enjoy it. Out of the 58 books of hers, are there ones you would recommend more than others? Thanks!
Hi Esther! I haven’t listened to all of hers on Librivox, and my favorite one there is not fantasy. Her book, The Railway Children, is fabulously narrated by Karen Savage. Nearly as good is The Treasure Seekers, by the same narrator (also not fantasy). Let me know if you try any others you really love!
I love how in your intro to the podcast you name all my family’s favorite fantasy authors. We’re still geeking out about how good N.D. Wilson’s Ashtown Burials series is – especially the audiobooks. The narrator is amazing!
Oh, I haven’t tried the audiobooks for those! I bet they are thrilling (I love the books!).