Please pray! After months of hard work and lots of hiccups we have uploaded our first audio book (Revenge of the Flying Carpet) to audible and itunes… it’s awaiting approval (which could be up to fourteen days). Once this one has been sorted (and there may be some further technical tweaks to be made) we will start work on uploading all our other books, one by one. It’s been a learning curve – but will be so worth it, because children who don’t enjoy reading will still be able to enjoy our books!
All the news from the last month, condensed into one handy place! 🙂 Enjoy and be encouraged… and thanks for all your support and prayers. x
Easter… If Jesus hadn’t died for us, if he hadn’t been raised from the dead, we would be lost forever, with no hope. It’s hard to express, for those of us who are children of God, how much that means to us. Words can not convey the gratitude, however much we try. This story, of all stories, is so full of joy after sorrow, hope after despair, light after darkness, truth after deception, life after death, undeserved forgiveness. Once again at this time of year, our hearts overflow with awe at the amazing grace of God – his sacrifice for us, because he loved us.
It’s a story we have to share. Please
continue to pray for the children who read our books, which convey
something of the good news of Jesus, wherever they are in the world –
orphans and refugees in Nigeria, desperately poor children in Kenya,
children of prisoners in the UK, and so many others.
Children
who go to church, and children who don’t… all need encouragement
to walk with Jesus.
Easter Outreach
If your church has an Easter outreach
event,A
New Me for
10-12s would be a great book for
the children to take home. The
story features Jess, whose dad has left home because he drinks.
Forced to move home as they are behind with the rent, Jess, her mum
and brother start a new life in a new village. Jess
joins the
church youth club and meets Christian young people for the first time
in her life. She learns about Jesus, forgiveness, and what a new
start really means. As
in all our newer books, A
New Me has a dyslexia
friendly design.
Rebecca, in Rebecca and Jade:
Choices (for teens) opens her heart to Jesus at an Easter
church service. Do you have a teenage girl you could share this book
with?
They’ve arrived! Real copies at last!
Mystery in the Snow is
also set at Easter, although it does snow (not unknown in the UK!).
If you were looking for a book on
forgiveness/grace/justice/mercy, Revenge of the Flying Carpet
(for 10-14s) would be a good option. Good for young people
living with difficult people/situations they feel powerless to
change.
Please contact
us for quantity discounts. We want your young people to have
our books, and will do what we can to help you.
Book Review
Reviews like this brighten our day! A
girl called Mary kindly took the time to write to us via our website
contact form:
“I wrote a book review for my school
work, and I was wondering if you would like to use it:
‘I really like Beech Bank Girls. It
is about six teenage friends, Annie, Willow, Rachel, Holly, Amber,
and Chloe.
In this book, there is a miracle
with Chloe’s brother. He has been unwell with depression, he reads
Christian books, becomes a Christian, and is much better.
Another thing that happens is that
Amber’s dog dies, and her parents try to make her happier by
getting another dog. They wanted her to name it. It makes Amber
sadder, but after a cat fights the dog (who she names Hamlet in the
end) she becomes friends with him.
Holly has a date with a boy, he
kisses her, and she does not like it, so she cancels the date. Annie
joins the group of friends. Also, Willow gets to know God better. It
is a really interesting book. I think you should read it, and I think
that you will enjoy it too!‘”
Thank you, Mary, for your
encouragement!
Discussion Questions
We are building up our list of books
that have Discussion Questions. If
you want to discuss the book with your children, run
a book club, or use the book
as a class reader, you may find these questions helpful. You can find
the list of books that already have questions
here.
Because our books go to schools and
are used in all sorts of different contexts, we have tried to keep
the questions simple and non-threatening, but we hope they will help
readers get the most from the stories. To
give you an idea, here are the questions for Deepest
Darkness (feel
free to skip on!):
1. Everyone is afraid of something. Do
you have the same kinds of fears as Abi, or are yours different?
Abi’s anxieties are all-consuming and affect what she is able to
do. Are your fears like that?
2. Abi’s family is supportive of her
fears, but other people don’t understand. Do people understand how
you feel?
3. Abi felt safe in the cabin. Do you
have a safe place, a place where you can be yourself, and relax?
4. What things do you miss out on (if
any) because of your fears? Do you want to be able to overcome your
anxiety, or are you happy the way you are?
5. Abi’s dad is very different to
Abi. He likes challenges, whereas she doesn’t. What are the
differences between you and your family and friends?
6. Nic only takes Abi one step at a
time with her fears. She wouldn’t have been able to walk in the
forest at night if she hadn’t first slept without a light at night,
then walked in the forest during the daytime. Is there anything in
your life you would like to change, if you could do it a little at a
time?
7. Abi and her family have never
thought about God before. Do you think God cares about us, and
answers our prayers, even if we don’t really know what to do or
say?
8. Abi’s family didn’t know much
about praying, but they were willing to give it a try. Would you be
willing to pray for someone else who needs to see light in their
situation, like Abi’s dad needed to see the light in the forest?
9. Nic talks about Jesus being the
true light that shines in the darkness. What do you think of that
idea? Do you think you could carry the light of Jesus with you in
your life? If you did, could that help you do something you couldn’t
do before?
10. Did Abi’s story inspire you? In
what ways?
Online Catalogue
This is the link to our online
catalogue. All our books are there for you to browse.
Please pass the link on to schools,
teachers, youth workers, homeschoolers, people who work with Boys and
Girls Brigades, and anyone you know who might be interested in
Christian books for the children on their heart.
Feel free to browse then buy from your
local Christian bookshop – they need your support to keep going.
Where Will the Books End Up?
Every new order is exciting! You never
know where the books will end up. Will they go to a girl like Mary,
who enjoyed the story? Who will read them? Will they change lives?
These five books (below) were ordered from our
website by a lady in Chatham, Kent. May they be much used and
loved! Don’t let your young people miss out. Not every child
enjoys reading, but if you know one who does, don’t miss the
opportunity to be a blessing.
Do you have a story about a book that
touched you as a child? We’d love to hear from you. 🙂
Right, that’s all for now! May the
grace of the Lord remain with you always.
Janet
P.S. We
very much appreciate your feedback. With this in mind, what
one thing could we do to make it easier for you to buy our books?
Have you visited the Dernier Publishing facebook page? If you are looking for Christian books for the young people on your heart, we hope to inspire you with book reviews, snippets of information, news, events and special offers that may be of interest. Love to see you over there! 🙂 Check out the video of Janet Wilson talking about our latest book – A New Me (above). If there’s anything you’d like to know, please ask. We’ll try to get back to you as soon as we can. 🙂
Did you know we have Discussion Questions for some of our books? You can find the questions here. They could be useful if you run a book group, want to discuss the book with your children, or use the group for as a class reader. To give you an idea, here are the questions for Deepest Darkness (for 8-11s-ish):
1. Everyone is afraid of something. Do you have the same kinds of fears as Abi, or are yours different? Abi’s anxieties are all-consuming and affect what she is able to do. Are your fears like that?
2. Abi’s family is supportive of her fears, but other people don’t understand. Do people understand how you feel?
3. Abi felt safe in the cabin. Do you have a safe place, a place where you can be yourself, and relax?
4. What things do you miss out on (if any) because of your fears? Do
you want to be able to overcome your anxiety, or are you happy the way
you are?
5. Abi’s dad is very different to Abi. He likes
challenges, whereas she doesn’t. What are the differences between you
and your family and friends?
6. Nic only takes Abi one step at a
time with her fears. She wouldn’t have been able to walk in the forest
at night if she hadn’t first slept without a light at night, then walked
in the forest during the daytime. Is there anything in your life you
would like to change, if you could do it a little at a time?
7.
Abi and her family have never thought about God before. Do you think God
cares about us, and answers our prayers, even if we don’t really know
what to do or say?
8. Abi’s family didn’t know much about
praying, but they were willing to give it a try. Would you be willing to
pray for someone else who needs to see light in their situation, like
Abi’s dad needed to see the light in the forest?
9. Nic talks
about Jesus being the true light that shines in the darkness. What do
you think of that idea? Do you think you could carry the light of Jesus
with you in your life? If you did, could that help you do something you
couldn’t do before?
10. Did Abi’s story inspire you? In what ways?
We hope these questions will help you engage with your children, and help to build them up in their walk with God. Let us know in the comments below if you use them, or if you have any further ideas for questions!
If your church has an Easter outreach event for 10-12s, A New Me would be a great book to take home. The story features Jess, whose dad has left home because he drinks. Forced to move home as they are behind with the rent, Jess, her mum and brother start a new life in a new village.
Jess joins a church youth club and meets Christian young people for the first time in her life. She learns about Jesus, forgiveness, and what a new start really means…
As in all our newer books, A New Me has a dyslexia friendly design. Contact us for quantity discounts. 🙂
Reviews like this brighten our day! This message is from a girl called Mary, who kindly took the time to write to us:
I wrote a book review for my school work, and I was wondering if you would like to use it:
“I really like Beech Bank Girls. It is about six teenage friends, Annie, Willow, Rachel, Holly, Amber, and Chloe.
In this book, there is a miracle with Chloe’s brother. He has been
unwell with depression, he reads Christian books, becomes a Christian,
and is much better. Another thing that happens is that Amber’s dog
dies, and her parents try to make her happier by getting another dog.
They wanted her to name it. It makes Amber sadder, but after a cat
fights the dog (who she names Hamlet in the end) she becomes friends
with him. Holly has a date with a boy, he kisses her, and she does not like it, so she cancels the date. Annie joins the group of friends. Also, Willow gets to know God better. It is a really interesting book. I think you should read it, and I think that you will enjoy it too!”
Some of our books have reached this slum in Kenya. Please pray for the readers. Books will help with education, to help children find a way out of poverty: plus, with the message of the good news in all our stories, children can be encouraged to walk with God. Thank you. x
A Pennyworth of Peppermints in set in the Great War. This is a lovely story for children studying the two world wars at school. There’s even a glossary at the end, and some recipes! Ben and his friends Sidney and Vera foil a spy plot, and learn about faith, evil, and who the enemy really is. For 8-11s, it’s a lovely book with lots of detail on what life would have been like for families living through this terrible war, and we walk with Ben as he takes the decision to trust in God. Educational and faith-building!
Beech Bank Girls, A Time Remembered, is a book for girls 10+. The story is set in current times, but Willow finds a diary written 100 years ago, which gives a fascinating insight to the war from one girl’s viewpoint. The Beech Bank Girls discover that although many things change, God remains as faithful now as He was when Grace was alive. If you want to encourage your girls in their faith, or give a girl you love the opportunity to find out what it means to be a Christian, this is the book for you. 🙂
Hello, thanks for dropping by! Janet here today with just a quick news update: I will be visiting Hillsong kids’ Sunday School group in May! (In London.) Lovely talking to one of the children’s workers, Gabi, yesterday. I’m looking forward to showing the children our books!
Children who go to church, and children who don’t… both need encouragement to walk with Jesus.
If you’d like someone from Dernier to come and talk to your children, please do get in touch. 🙂
If you would like to give books away to children who attend a church/school Easter event, let us know – we’d love to help (and can offer quantity discounts). Taking the message home is such a wonderful thing to do.
Hi, Janet Wilson here, from Dernier Publishing. Every month I write a round-up of news, so you can be informed, inspired, buy books and pray for us! You can read the latest newsletter by clicking here.
Lent is fast approaching! Why not take the time to read a selection Christian books with your children? Fill their minds with good things, talk about Christianity in real life, build your relationship.
We’ve never given our kindle books a lot of publicity, so we thought we would give a little promotion to I Want to Be an Airline Pilot on kindle, and see how it goes. We have reduced the price to 99p ($1.29), for a limited time.
Having a kindle book just isn’t the same as having a paperback in your hands, but there are advantages: the story is instantly downloadable, so you can have it for a car journey or a rainy day without waiting for it to arrive, it’s cheaper than a paperback and you can order it wherever you are in the world. Plus it takes less space in your luggage, if you’re off on holiday. 🙂
Did you know You can read kindle books on any electronic device with the free kindle app? So you don’t need a kindle to read a kindle book!
You can also buy a
kindle book as a gift for someone else’s kindle/tablet/phone/device,
which is brilliant – OK, you can’t unwrap it, but it’s instant, and
there’s no shipping!
Why not give it a
try?
I Want to Be an Airline Pilot is the first in a series of three books set in Rwanda. The story is moving, inspirational and fun. It features an eight-year-old goatherd from a child-led family, who discovers through a series of adventures that he has a father in heaven who cares for him.
It’s a lovely book to share answers to prayer, God’s love, the church as family, God’s provision and grace – and lots of hope! Lovely for family reading, to share together. Equally good for bookworms who love to hide themselves away with a good book. 🙂
You can also order
the book from any of the other Amazon stores – Japan, Canada, India
etc.
Here are some comments from readers:
“I
just wanted to tell you how much Joe
and I are enjoying reading I
want to be an airline pilot!!
I’m reading it to Joe
at
bedtime and he’s really enjoying it
– it’s his
favourite book so far!! And he’s read lots of books! He loves the
bits about Rwanda that he’s learning and his bedtime prayers are full
of thanks for all his blessings. We’ve had some really good chats
following on from each chapter too. Each chapter he tried to persuade
me to read on so he can find out what happens next
– and
not just delaying bedtime, he’s genuinely wanting to keep going!!!”
“Based
on the author’s experience of living in Rwanda, yet sensitively
written for younger readers, this book and its’ sequels are great
little stories with plot lines that really draw you in and make for a
good read. They also help children to realise how different life can
be for children in other cultures. The Christian content is
appropriate for the setting. I highly recommend them.”
“This
was an intriguing and delightful tale of an orphaned family which was
written with great compassion. The hero, Shema, and the lady that
rescued him, Mama Grace, and their fears and emotions were very well
portrayed. The story was fast-moving and full of local interest.”
Any questions about the book, please don’t hesitate to ask!
Do you write novels for young people from a Christian perspective, or would you like to give it a go? Janet Wilson runs ‘Write for a Reason’, which is a resource for anyone who’d like a bit of help and encouragement with their writing. You can find more here.
If you know a family who is struggling financially, why not buy them a book or two for their children? Parents might love to have a selection of Christian books, but not be able to afford to buy them. Your gift could bring life! If you’re worried they might think it a bit weird, how about saying, “I saw this and thought of you,” or just put the books anonymously through the door? Or buy them for Easter, a birthday, or find another excuse? 🙂 You never know what blessings your gift could bring.
It’s half term (in case you needed reminding!). Reading together is really cheap entertainment, for hours of pleasure! You can take your children to foreign places, meet amazing people, be encouraged and inspired together… all from the comfort of your settee! Oh, and perhaps the most important thing of all… build up your faith… grab this opportunity before it’s gone.
We are influenced by what we put into our minds – good or bad. Christian books help us think about spiritual and moral issues in a positive way. Christian characters can inspire us in the way they win through in different situations… and ideas that come up in stories help us to evaluate our own lives.
It won’t be too long before Lent begins (Tuesday 5th March is Shrove Tuesday). What about reading a Christian book with your child (or as a family) – a bit every day through Lent this year? Be a great opportunity to draw closer to God together, maybe? Just a thought!
Perhaps you could keep a 40 day journal of what you learn together? It could be a precious keepsake.
The two boxes of books we sent to Archbishop Ben Kwashi in Plateau State in Nigeria have arrived! We are delighted to hear this wonderful news, and are grateful to all who donated.
These books will go to schools in and around Jos, where there are many orphans and refugees, due to the troubles. Please pray the books will be enjoyed by many readers, and bring light and life and hope where there is so much darkness. Thank you! And if you’d like to sponsor a box of books, let me know. Now we know the shipping works, we can send more.
🙂 This is a brilliant way to help – actual physical help that will make a difference. What a wonderful privilege!
Reviews like this make all the hard work worthwhile:
A little boy said after reading Deepest Darkness, “It made me happy.” This little chap suffers from low self-esteem and anxieties.
His mum, who read the book with him, said, “I was able to use Abi’s experiences of overcoming her fears, to try to get him to see how he might overcome or build upon small steps like Abi did. Social stories are tools used in school to help him understand some of his emotions so this was a good book for him.”
Mum also said, “I liked the way the book was written, how it had a lovely story but also explored faith related issues. The description of the island made it very believable.”
Her son added, “I liked the way Abi conquered her fears.”
Mum and son both give the book 5*.
If you’d like a copy of the book, you can order here from our website, or any bookshop. Thanks to all who pray!
I’ve posted this before, but some things are worth repeating 🙂
1.
Stories stick in your mind (Jesus told stories for a reason!) 2.
Christian books are a great way to share the good news. 3. Young
people can reflect on subjects such as prayer, justice and
forgiveness, for themselves. 4. Church kids find it thrilling
to find Christian characters in a ‘real’ story! 5. Christian
fiction helps church children feel less marginalised. 6.
Books written from a Christian perspective can be an eye-opener for
non-church young people, and can bring hope. 7. Stories are
much more exciting to read than straight information! 8. We
are influenced by what we put into our minds; Christian books contain
Christian values. 9. Books help readers think about spiritual
and moral issues. 10. Christian characters can be inspiring
in the way they win through in different situations. 11. Ideas
that come up in stories help us to evaluate our own lives. 12.
Modern Christian fiction is culturally relevant (and exciting!). 13.
Young people can find out how Bible stories are applicable to
their own lives. 14. Books make non-threatening presents for
non-church families. 15. They aid literacy (they are books!);
Christian books have the added bonus of a spiritual dimension. 16.
Children desperate for an education can learn about God’s love
while they read. 17. Christian books make non-threatening
gifts where spiritual input may otherwise be impossible. 18.
Reading a Christian novel with your children is great for
bonding. 19. You can discuss biblical issues that Christian
books bring up, helping you to fulfil your duties as a Christian
parent/grandparent/teacher! 20. Christian books can sow seeds
that will bear fruit in years to come. 21. Not all books out
there are helpful – Christian books are a fabulous alternative. 22.
Christian books bring up current issues, such as modern day slavery,
from a Christian perspective. 23. Christian fiction can
encourage and inspire young people to walk with God, even church kids
who are bored with Bible stories 24. We have received many
testimonies of how our books have touched lives – some children are
drawn to Christian books. 25. Every child is precious, and
should have a chance to hear the good news in a way that is relevant
to them.
It’s nearly a month since Christmas! Please pray for all the children who received our books as Christmas presents – that they will be enjoyed, and touch hearts. Thank you!
We are currently working on larger versions of The Birthday Shoes and I Want to Be an Airline Pilot. All good fun! These are such lovely stories, and I think the larger, updated versions will be great for readers. Discussion questions have been added at the back, along with dyslexia friendly font and layout. What’s not to like?
🙂 If you’d like first edition copies of either of these books, now’s the time to get one! Click on the links above for more info, or order from your local Christian bookshop!
Christian books are an encouragement and blessing. Don’t forget to buy them for your kids, too. They need blessing and encouragement every bit as much as we do. #christianbooksforkids
Happy New Year to you all, and thanks for being with us once again.
We can’t promise that any of our books will change lives. But it’s not our job to change lives – the only person who can do that is the Lord himself. Our job is to faithfully keep sharing the good news – and praying that the seeds will bear fruit.
Author Mary Weeks Millard told me with a heavy heart of a 19-year-old lad’s suicide, just before Christmas. It’s hard to think of the words to say when faced with such a terrible tragedy. Mental health issues among young people/children have hit the news recently. As Christians, we need to respond. This article in the Guardian regarding children’s mental health is an eye-opener.
Could your young people’s group give The City Kid to a friend (John attempts suicide when life becomes too much for him, but finds new life in Jesus)? Might your church sponsor Deepest Darknessfor pupils at your local school (Abi begins to find freedom from her acute anxiety)? Please get in touch if you think we can help. We are more than happy to give quantity discounts. Perhaps lives can be saved. Like George in that classic Christmas film It’s a Wonderful Life, we may never know the evil we have prevented by small, faithful actions. One mum once said to me, after her son read The City Kid, “I actually feel quite choked after talking to Sam about the book, as it has really seemed to help him at what is a quite difficult time in his own life.”
If you want to set up a reading group for your young people, we have discussion questions, for both books (and several others).
Goals
This year, we have set some goals, to help us reach more readers (and listeners!). Your prayers for each of these would be so much appreciated (and you might even be able to help with some of them!):
1. Foreign translations
You may remember that a few
years ago, some of our books were taken up by a Christian publisher
in Croatia. Wouldn’t it be great for our books to reach more
non-English speakers?
2. On-Demand Printing Worldwide
We’d love our books to be
available worldwide without having to ship them. CLC are setting up a
facility to be able to do this… The Birthday Shoes
is the guinea pig book!
3. Audio Books
All our books are now recorded!
When I have the edited files, we can start to make them available.
4. Old Covers Updated
Some of our book covers are
looking dated.
We need some new ones!
5. Young People’s Reviews
This year I’d love to get more
photos of young people reading our books, more reviews and even
videos… if you can help with this, we’d be hugely grateful – just
send them in! 🙂 N.B. We
don’t use real names with photos, or locations.
6. Book in Progress
Yay, we
need to
produce more books!
7. Social Media Following
We’d love to have a bigger presence online. Please join us on facebook and twitter, and share our posts and links and news with your friends. My twitter handle is @janetwilsonxxx. Love to see you there!
8. Write for a Reason
This is a resource I run for
writers. Please pray whatever I do will be useful.
9. Influencers
If someone well-known recommends
a book, customers are
more likely to buy it. Sooooo, it would be great to have some
well-known people recommend our books. If you know anyone, please do
pass on the info!
I hope that hasn’t bored you too
much, but if we’re going to get the good news out, we need to have a
plan. I’ll let you know how things are progressing as we go through
the year…
The box of books we sent to the Star
School in Kigali has still not arrived – please keep
praying! These children don’t have a lot of reading books, so they
will be well used.
I visited Manna Christian Bookshop
in Streatham last week. It was great to see our books on the shelf!
Please do support your local Christian bookshop, if you have one.
Buying online is convenient, but along with all ‘real’ shops, they
need our support to keep going.
I used the time between Christmas and
the New Year to give our website
a new look. Any comments appreciated. 🙂
And I think that’s it for now!
May your life be filled with faith and
fabulous fruit in 2019!.. and once more, thank you for sticking with
us for another year. We couldn’t do it without you.
Janet
P.S. Some of our newsletters are
filled with hope and joy. Having re-read this one, I feel more of a
determination and readiness to fight. Please keep fighting with
us. We can not fight alone.
Please pray that a parcel of books we sent to this school in Kigali, Rwanda, will arrive soon! These children don’t have many story books, so our books will make a difference, both to their education, and perhaps the Lord will touch them through the pages of the stories, too. That’s if the books arrive!
The school is The Star School, Kigali, Rwanda. Our link is through author Mary Weeks Millard. Mary was here when she had the inspiration for I Want to Be an Airline Pilot! You can read more about the book by clicking here.
We have been working hard to get discussion questions for our books here on our website. These questions can act as discussion starters for parents reading the book with a child, teachers with their pupils, church groups with their members… we hope they will be useful. 🙂 Feel free to share – they are completely free! Click on the links below to take you to the discussion questions for each of these books:
We pray for all of the children who read our books. We don’t know many of them by name, of course, but we know someone who does. 🙂
This year we have sent books to orphans in Nigeria, several boxes to schools and a children’s home in Kenya, and to Scripture Union in Uganda. (We have also sent a box of books to Star School in Rwanda but it hasn’t made it yet – please pray it will find its way there, because it’s overdue!)
Not all our books go on long journeys to sunny places… many stay in the UK! We have no idea what happens to most of them, when they leave us for Christian bookshops, or are sold online. We do know that 500 children of prisoners will be receiving one of our Beech Bank Girls books (via Angel Tree/Prison Fellowship) this Christmas, and another thing we can be sure of – some of our readers will be going through tough times. Some may never have heard the good news of Jesus. Others may be struggling with family, friends, health, poverty… and all sorts of other issues. We can pray for them, because the Lord knows!
Over the last few weeks I’ve been helping out with three children who were taken into emergency care. Having found out I was a publisher, the two older ones asked if they could read the books. They chose A New Me and Revenge of the Flying Carpet.
If you have a minute, would you pray for all our readers? Thank you.
Christian Suppliers and Retailers
Dernier is one of the smaller publishers belonging to the Christian Suppliers Group. I had the privilege of attending a meeting at the HarperCollins offices in London last month. Wow, what a view! (If you can’t see the photos, perhaps because of your mailbox settings, come on over to our website to see them there.) It’s great to be part of a wider network of publishers, all working in the Christian trade.
A couple of weeks ago I popped into our local Christian bookshop to buy Christmas cards – Judith (on duty at the till) had been looking for a book for a niece with no church background and bought A New Me! Also good to see our books on the shelves. 🙂 Do you have a local bookshop? Most of them stock Dernier books!
Encouragement
Every so often we get a gem of an email. This is one of them:
“We had our Sunday Club presentations two weeks ago where the children can choose a book from the bookshop and the cost is met by a kind widow in the congregation in memory of her husband who loved seeing the children. It was good to see a number of Dernier books being chosen, including a Beech Bank one by a girl who had already read one and ‘The Only Way’ by a reluctant 12 year old.
May God continue to bless you in your exciting ministry.”
If you have an encouraging story, please do send it in – it’s always lovely to hear from you!
Quick Advance Notice
Details to be arranged, by I will be running a workshop at the Hand in Hand Children’s Ministry Conference in Eastbourne in February. More details to come. If you are looking for a speaker for your church or writing group for next year (not long now, folks!), I love sharing the Dernier story, and/or running workshops. Kent/Essex/SE London preferred, but don’t mind travelling a little way!
Last Orders
Christmas is a fun time for most of us, but when the food and drink is gone, and the decorations back in their boxes, a Christian book can continue to bring light, life, hope, faith, peace and joy, long after the festivities.
Who will you buy yours for?
We will keep shipping Dernier books until the bitter end, but if you want to be sure of receiving yours by Christmas, NOW would be a good time to order!
Someone on your heart? Don’t miss out on this year’s opportunity to be a blessing.
Emmanuel, God with Us
Jesus, come to us – that’s good news to share! May this amazing truth fill your heart this Christmas.
It’s not too late to buy a Christian book for a child on your heart for Christmas. Let them know you care. 🙂 Christian books can be more than just a fun story. They can reach down and touch the soul with hope, light, life and love. Who will you buy yours for?
Christmas is a fun time for most of us, but when the food and drink is gone, the decorations are back in their boxes and all the festivities are over, a Christian book can continue to bring light, life, hope, faith, peace and joy.
To help you choose, pick the age group of the child you want to buy for in the categories above, then scroll through the books and pick the one you think would best suit. You can read all the first chapters, so you get an idea of the content and writing style! If you need help choosing, please don’t hesitate to contact us. 🙂
Christmas is a fun time for most of us, but when the food and drink is gone, and the decorations back in their boxes, a Christian book can continue to bring light, life, hope, faith, peace and joy, long after the festivities.
Love seeing our books in Christian bookshops! Found these books are on the shelves at The Christian Bookshop at Pratts Bottom, Orpington. Thanks to Judith and the team for stocking and promoting them. 🙂
Sent off a box of books to Star School in Kigali, Rwanda, this morning! Our connection there is author Mary Weeks Millard, who was instrumental in setting up the school some years ago. The third picture is Mary (The Birthday Shoes, A Pennyworth of Peppermints, I Want to Be an Airline Pilot, Living in Hope and Under the Tamarind Tree) giving a gift of books to the Headmaster a couple of years ago. Please pray this new box will arrive safely!
Mary Weeks Millard giving Christian books to Star School, Rwanda
Dernier Publishing books are getting out and about! On Saturday we had a stand at a Christian Coalition for Education event in Oxford. We met quite a few teachers and headteachers, and we were heartened by the interest shown in our books. One headteacher said, “Why haven’t I heard about you before? These are exactly what we need.” Please pray we will be able to get our books into more schools, to reach children who might not hear the good news any other way – and to encourage our own church children. Thank you!
You never know where our books are going to go next… this time it’s Nigeria!
I was both delighted and honoured to meet Archbishop Ben Kwashi from Jos (Plateau State) yesterday evening. Archbishop Ben and his amazing wife, Gloria, have 51 children currently living with them. (Yes, that is 51; it’s not a typo!) Most of these children have lost both their parents due to the violence you will have read about in the news.
I asked the Archbishop if he would like some Christian children’s books to take back with him, and he was so enthusiastic! (We had previously sent some samples via a visiting friend.) So we are sending a box of books back with him for the children, for Christmas.
What a privilege.
Please pray for the children (many who have lived through traumas we can barely imagine), that as they read the stories, they will find hope and healing in Jesus.
If you would like to give a gift of a book/s, please find the DONATE button on the menu, and we will make sure your gift reaches a child in need. If you would particularly like your book/s to go to Nigeria, please add your request at checkout, and we will make sure your gift reaches these precious children. The Archbishop also runs about 100 schools all over Jos and in the outlying villages, so books are highly valued!
Thank you – standing united together in the body of Christ is a very precious thing. 🙂
Now we are well into November, it’s time to turn our thoughts to Christmas! If we can help you choose Christian books for your children/teens, please contact us on email, or find us on facebook – we always love to try to help match the reader with the right book! 🙂
I (Janet Wilson) have been recording A New Me for Torch Trust… sorry it’s not a very good photo, but it wasn’t easy taking a selfie with the book and microphone! We are hoping to bring all Dernier books out in audio versions at some point – in the meantime, we are glad children with sight loss can enjoy all our stories in large print, Braille and audio through Torch Trust. Contact us if you’d like more details.
A bit more of a personal post today. Janet here, founder of Dernier Publishing – thanks for being here!
I helped at our church Glow Party yesterday evening. We gave a Christian children’s book to each of the children who came (about 35, I think). Most were children from the local community, who came dressed up as witches, ghouls and the like. It was good to share the light with them in games, music and stories! Please pray for good seeds to be sown, in their lives, and also in the lives of their parents. Thank you!
Another encouragement as I was giving out the books: one of our own church girls said she’d really enjoyed reading the Beech Bank Girls and The Only Way. Always rejoice when I hear something like that! You just never know how much a Christian book can touch lives. Why not buy a book today and be a blessing to someone?
Today is All Saints Day, and we thank God for all the people who have gone before us, brought us the Word of God in our language, preached and taught the truth, and in some cases given up their earthly lives so we can hear and believe. Now we must do the same for the next generation. 🙂
We are grateful to Christian bookshops all over the UK for stocking our books. Here are some orders ready to go – perhaps they will end up being Christmas presents!
Please pray the books will be an encouragement to all who read them. If you’d like one of these books for a child/teen on your heart, why not visit your local Christian bookshop? They will be delighted to serve you. 🙂
Author Clive Lewis took some Dernier books to Uganda recently (The City Kid, I Want to Be an Airline Pilot, Living in Hope and Under the Tamarind Tree). Clive gave the books to Dickens Zziwa, National Director of Scripture Union. SU do a great job taking the good news of Jesus to young people all over Uganda, so the books will be well used. Delighted to see our books reaching places we can not go! Working together in the Kingdom of God is a huge privilege. If you pray, you are part of it, too – how awesome is that? 🙂 (With thanks to Florence Lewis for the lovely photos.)!)
A New Me is dyslexia friendly – see how easy it is to read? We would like to update all our books, eventually, to this style, to make them as accessible as we can to as many readers as possible. Most of our books are also available to large print and Braille in the UK. Please contact us for more details. 🙂
One way you can develop a rich relationship with your children is to read stories together. Mums and Dads, get involved! Talk about the issues the characters face… in this way you can get to understand what your children are thinking/feeling, and you get a chance to share your own wisdom.
This book (Living in Hope), tells the story of Sam, who is falsely accused of stealing, and Frida, who is tricked into becoming a domestic servant… when the children get her home, they throw a ‘prodigal’ party. Inspirational, educational, and great fun!
Living in Hope, and the other two books in the series, are available as paperbacks or as an ebook (available worldwide on the Amazon kindle store). Click on the links for more info, or to buy this lovely book for yourself.
All our books (except for the brand new one, A New Me) are available as ebooks on Amazon’s kindle store. So now you can read any book you like anywhere you like in the world. 🙂 Why not read the stories to your children – and be inspired yourself while you read. 🙂 Just search for the title on Amazon and you will find it!
All our books in one neat collage! Who do you know who needs a bit of encouragement? All these books are currently in stock!
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Only five days to go to the launch of A New Me! This lovely Christian book for young people (11-13-ish) shows how there is always hope, even when things seem to be going very wrong. If you can come to the launch, we’d love to see you there! The author’s wife, Jane, has apparently got some games and challenges ready, so bring the kids, too.
If you can’t make the launch, you can order the book here and we’ll send it to you next week. 🙂
Don’t laugh, but I have taken up running. Actually, feel free to laugh if you wish :-). For a long time I’ve been realising the need to do something to increase my level of fitness. Finally, at the end of July, I bit the bullet and downloaded a ‘Couch to 5K’ app on my smart phone, which takes total beginners through a nine week running programme. The idea is to start small (60 seconds running, 90 seconds walking) for half an hour, and gradually build it up. I’ve reached Week Seven and am running 25 minutesin one go. That would have been impossible a few weeks ago! How did I get this far? One small step at a time.
Planning Big
Running 5k seems like a huge goal, but that’s OK- I’ll give it my best shot! I have big goals/dreams for Dernier, too. I’d like to see Christian fiction for children available to every child in a way that is accessible to them – stories that point to Jesus. Paperbacks, ebooks, kindle books, spoken books, books in other languages, large print books, books in every corner of the word… we are making small steps towards all of these. At times the task seems overwhelming. But we press on, one step at a time, because we have a God for whom nothing is impossible, who loves all the little children of the world, and loves the older children, too.
Stepping Together
Getting books into the hands of young people wouldn’t be possible without you taking some of the steps with us. Whatever your involvement with Dernier, thank you. Because we are working together, children in rural schools in Africa desperate for books have something inspirational to read. Because we are working together, 500 prisoners’ children in the UK will receive one of our books this Christmas. Because we are working together, we have a new book out next month with the potential to touch many young lives. Because we are working together, our books are in bookshops all over the UK. Because of you we have a website that is accessible to people in most countries of the world at the click of a button. Because of you, some of our books are in schools, libraries, churches and homes and maybe children’s hands right now.
There’s almost nothing that can’t be done by taking small steps. Not all of them are easy, and some take a lot of courage, sheer hard work and headaches along the way. But as we step out together, we can shoot for the moon. And if we don’t make it quite that far, at least we’ll have sown some seeds along the way. 🙂
Books for rural schools in Africa
Dr Loise Gichuhi from Education Bridge Africa told me via Skype, “We delivered some of the books to a rural village school today. The books fitted the 13 to 17 ages very well. Very excited.” The school have been requesting story books for a whole year. Not all the children are good readers, so some of the books we might consider to be a bit young for them will actually come in useful. And perhaps, like Shema in I Want to Be an Airline Pilot, readers will be assured they have a Father in heaven who cares for them.
Take Another Step!
At the moment I’m working on updating the website, building up relationships with retailers, making final touches to the new book and working to make it known, updating all our book files so we can go print on demand all over the world, finishing audio versions of the books (nearly there!), planning my talk for Christ Church… and soon I will be taking a week off! 🙂
Here are some steps you could take:
Buy a book for a child you know from your local Christian bookshop or from our website.
Donate a book to an African school. We have a donate button on our website now, so you buy a book and we will send it on your behalf – more info here.
Give out leaflets We have new ones! Contact me if you’d like to give leaflets out in your church or school
Forward this newsletter to your minister/a friend/youth leader
Send in a review of one of our books
Pray for Dernier and all the children who read our books.
Thank you! Every step forward is a step in the right direction!
Christian Resources Together
Last week I was in Derbyshire, at the Christian Resources Together event, meeting up with other people who work in the Christian book trade. It’s always a good time with authors, publishers, distributors and retailers, showcasing our books, worshipping together, and deepening friendships over meals and drinks. I made some potentially good contacts, including interest from a publishing house in the States… if anything transpires I will be sure to let you know! I also had a lovely chat with J John’s wife, Killy, and gave her a copy of The Birthday Shoes for their grandaughter! You can buy your own copy here. 🙂
Speaking
I’m speaking at Christ Church Orpington on Saturday September 29th, at a Ladies Breakfast. If you’d like to book a ticket, I’m sure they’d be able to fit you in! Love to see you there. There’s nothing on their website yet, so contact me if you’d like to come.
Kindle books
All our books are now available on the kindle platform. Just type in the book title in the Amazon search, and you will find the one you are looking for. Enjoy!
A New Me
This fab new book will be launched next month. Author Roy, and his wife, Jane, have got some great ideas for a launch – will give you more details next month!
In the meantime, thanks once again for walking with us, and praying for us. God will make a way where there seems to be no way.
