I felt compelled to share how I stumbled across the DIOM series. All 3 of my girls are voracious readers. It was when Micaela finished reading the entire Harry Potter series for the 7th time that I became nearly desperate to find an alternative that would have the redemption/love piece only found in Christian books. I went to Lifeway and of course saw your books. Buying a book for someone else is always a shot in the dark and don’t ya know Eye of the Oracle sat on her shelf for 7 months untouched.
It wasn’t until we were headed out on a 3-week road trip and I forbid her to take local library books along that she turned to Eye of the Oracle. I know she chose it because of it’s size. Frankly that was part of what drew me to it; that and the fantasy genre since I was looking for something to pull them back away from HP. We got in the van and headed south. Thirteen hours later we got out of the van and she’d read the ENTIRE book!! Needless to say I ended up purchasing the next two volumes at Lifeway in Orlando. Sadly, we bought all they had of sequential editions and had to find another series to explore.
Fortunately the girls love re-reading their favorites and DIOM is definitely a favorite! I’m old enough though that I had to get assistance as I started reading Eye of the Oracle. Don’t laugh…I sat with the bible on my left knee and your book in my hand; fascinated by the accuracy and then embellishments you’d written. Stuff Micaela and Rachel hadn’t thought of but found fascinating as I shared what I’d learned. But then the fantasy stuff…that’s where being old handicapped me and I had to have Micaela’s help giving me the images of what I was reading. Truly fascinating. Once she got my fantasy imagination primed I was good to go!
As a parent I have been so frustrated with the lack of ‘safe’ reading material at this in-between age. They aren’t adults and yet they’re too old for the Tree House, American Girl, Cul-De-Sac Kids and Junie B. Jones series that they enjoyed in lower elementary. I loved Nancy Drew at their age but they don’t. So many of the books that are written for girls their age are about cliques, “crushing” on boys and hair and makeup. None of what we want our girls focused on. Since I can’t read everything they do, I always ask lots of questions about what’s going on in their books so we can discuss the character’s situations and decisions.
I am so thankful for the writing you’ve done.