Many people have been asking, how/why did you start writing children's books?
Some background:
I always liked listening to stories. Some of my favorite childhood memories are falling asleep listening to my mom's animated tales of Bible heroes and Korean folk tales, or my dad telling me tales of growing up in a rice farm in Korea. My younger brother and I wouldn't let them fall asleep until the story was finished.
When I had kids, I carried on the tradition of telling stories to them. Sometimes, when they were struggling with a particular character flaw or sin it was hard for them to understand why they were wrong. Toddlers are pretty stubborn. =P But if I made up a story with animal characters and those animals (i.e. Tabby the sparrow) were struggling with a similar sin, they more easily could point out where the animals were sinning/wrong. Throughout parenting, these stories became more and more useful as they were eager to follow the adventures of these animals.
I looked for Christian children's books that I could use for similar purpose. Most were too long, or too wordy for my youngest, or not engaging, or not biblical or too costly (out of print). My friend Julia was taking biblical counseling classes at the time and I mentioned the stories I told my kids. She told me her professor had just told her class that there was a need for good children's biblical counseling books. She encouraged me to write down my stories.
I started writing my first story (what later became Tabby the Sparrow learns contentment), asked Christine if she'd illustrate and Tabby was born.
My prayer is that it will be an encouragement to other moms that the hard work of parenting can be supplemented with fun stories while still being biblical. I truly believe that all we need is the Bible for life and godliness, but hope that this book opens up avenues of communication with kids that helps them to see their need to repent from their sins and turn to the only Savior.
Grace and Peace,
Narae
