I have three kids.
Right now they’re 13, 12, and 9, and they devour books like crazy people. They gobble them up like sugar cereal. When we come home from the library, each of them has five or ten books under each arm. At first I tried to keep up, tried to preview every book they read. But these days, when my oldest zips through a Hardy Boys book in one afternoon? No way.
So I wanted to let you know, in case you’re wary of these books, I’m not one of those writers churning out stories for money, or to push a political agenda, and I’m not writing fantasy just because I have a thing for swords and dragons, and I don’t want to corrupt your kids with shady philosophy or trick them into practicing witchcraft. I don’t want to expose them to words or situations I wouldn’t want my own children exposed to.
Here’s why I’m writing these books.
I bear the Maker’s image, and one of the ways that plays out is that I delight in making. I’ve loved to draw for as long as I can remember. From the moment I picked up the guitar I wasn’t content to play another guy’s songs–I wanted to sing my own. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to write stories. I love stories, and thrill to an imagination on fire. I sat down in front of the blank page and let my imagination run wild, did my best to tell a story I would want to be told. If a reader is willing to trust me with a little of his or her imagination, I want to light it up with truth, and beauty, and goodness.
I want you to know that I take my job as storyteller very, very seriously. I believe deeply in the power of Story. It has informed the way I live, my relationship with God, and, as crazy as it sounds, my understanding of the meaning of life (if I may speak in such grand terms). My dad’s a preacher from the South, so you can imagine how folklore, anecdote, humor, absurdity, good character (and odd characters), good and evil, and the Bible shaped the narrative of my childhood.
So this is a story about light and goodness and Truth with a capital T. It’s about beauty, and resurrection, and redemption. But for those things to ring true in a child’s heart, the storyteller has to be honest. He has to acknowledge that sometimes when the hall light goes out and the bedroom goes dark, the world is a scary place. He has to nod his head to the presence of all the sadness in the world; children know it’s there from a very young age, and I wonder sometimes if that’s why babies cry. He has to admit that sometimes characters make bad choices, because every child has seen their parent angry or irritable or deceitful–even the best people in our lives are capable of evil.
But of course the storyteller can’t stop there. He has to show in the end there is a Great Good in the world (and beyond it). Sometimes it is necessary to paint the sky black in order to show how beautiful is the prick of light. Gather all the wickedness in the universe into its loudest shriek and God hears it as a squeak at best. And that is a comforting thought. When a child reads the last sentence of my stories, I hope he or she drifts to sleep with a glow in their hearts and a warmth in their bones, believing that all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.
Thank you for trusting me to lead you and yours along this old footpath.
AP
So thankful I typed in the meaning of the wingfeather because it led me not only to real loving dad with a love for his dads, heavenly and earthly, but sparked in me the desire to seek out creative expressions. Thank you!
I am so very thankful for the Wingfeather Saga! My boys who are just about the same ages as Janner and Tink are so engaged. They ask me to continue and we talk about the adventures often. We look forward to reading each night. THANK YOU! Your descriptions cause our imaginations to soar…
In case you read these – I read the series with my 14 year old son (the other kids haven’t finished them yet but they are working on it.) Later he and I were talking about how every author has a message they are trying to get across. He mentioned that he doesn’t like it when the message is too blatant, he’d rather it be more subtle. I asked “Like the Wingfeather Saga?” His response was perfect: “Mom, when I read the Wingfeather Saga I didn’t feel like the author was trying to tell me something, I felt like God was talking to me.” I thought you’d appreciate that. Thanks for those books. We LOVED them.
Thank you for this. You just sold me on showing this to my son.
We have three kids as well. 16, 14 and 10 and they love books and love good stories. With so much of the dystopian thread to the books that are written today, we wanted to see if there was another series that may bring encouragement like the Chronicles of Narnia or Lord of the Rings. I had known about the Wingfeather Saga, but only faintly and so we decided to get our middle child Abby, the first book to see how she liked it. She couldn’t put it down so my wife and I started reading it and we look forward to snuggling into bed to find out what will happen to the young Igiby children and their family next.
Andrew, I’ve loved your music for sometime, we even sing Hosanna several times/year as a song of confession. Your writing may be better than your music, all of which is storytelling at it’s absolute best. God be with you and your family and the journey and stories that come from it. May you accomplish everything God has rightly put in your heart to do. I’m sure that it gives him as much joy in seeing you share it, as you have in creating it!
i’m not even sure why i’m reading this note since i’m only fourteen, but is that a Awana’s T&T shirt Aedan is wearing?
I think your right!
wait is that Aedan or Asher?
I am reading On The Edge with my eight and six-year old. We are having so much fun! What an adventure. We are even reading during breakfast before the school bus! Thanks for the Truth!
I read your first book for a book club and just became obsessed! I read the second and thirds books in a matter of days and LOVE THEM! I cried my way through the last few chapters of the last book. I can’t wait till the 4th book comes out!! Please make movies….
Thank you for good books. I mean really good, moral, perserverent (word?), determined, not afraid to get gross, real and truthful books. I do pre read almost every book for my many kids, and raced through these first three, handed them off to my then 14 year old, and he loved them too! Now I read these aloud to my younger 4 children ages 2-10. We can’t get enough. Anything that honors our Lord is good and right. Thanks for keeping to that.
Will you make a movie on these books
I love your alien conspiracy song
Wow, your kids are very close to how I was picturing the three from the book.
Andrew,
We saw you (third time) and the BTLOG gang in Houston just before
Christmas. A blessing as always. Thanks for doing the shows and
for the video reminders on Wingfeather. We are starting the series
ASAP.
Andrew – thank you so much for these novels! I have weened my oldest off of Harry Potter and she is now hanging on every word of your book. We’re 4 chapters from the end of Dark Sea of Darkness, reading a chapter a night to my 3 girls (5, 8, 11). As much as they love it, I am finding myself drawn in, as I was when I was a boy reading C.S Lewis, Tolkien, and L’Engle. I am laughing and even choking back a tear or two as I read to my girls. We look forward to the next two books. I have loved your music since your first album and now am thrilled to see you have channeled your talent into writing novels, without forgetting the former.
Hello. I am wondering what books your 6-year-old is reading , what you read to her and if you think the “Wingfeather Saga” is appropriate for that age. My daughter is a new reader, and I want to read her books that will stir in her a love of reading. Thanks for your feedback.
I am a reader, a teacher, a mother, a singer, and a modern medicine woman. I was drawn to your words of “Dancing in the Minefields” (which plays a few times a day on Z88.3 in Central Florida).
I am in constant search of books, for my 13 yr old reluctant reader son, that speak the things you describe above. Books with light, goodness, Truth, and honesty about the darkness and scary places in this world and our lives.
Thank you for your artistry. Thank you for the beautiful words that have helped me “rise up… and awake”. Thank you for good book choices and amazing music. Take time with your family – savor this month of “touring rest” – May you find the Sonlight on your face every morning and be able to “walk with The Lord in the cool of the day” (Gen 3:8).
Looking forward to your next “creation”…
Still on The Potter’s Wheel,
Lisa (Is. 64:8)
I am a mother of 3 (ages 15, 13, 10) and my son, Luke, (the oldest) is a HUGE fan of your writing. He and his best friend, Ross, are eagerly awaiting #3 of your Berinfell Prophesies series. Anyway, I was doing a little Christmas shopping tonight online and decided to check out your website! I just want you to know that when I clicked on “A Note To Parents” tab, your words moved me to tears and were EXACTLY what I needed to hear tonight. When you said, “Gather all the wickedness in the universe into its loudest shriek and God hears it as a squeak at best” it made my cry. As a parent, I feel so overwhelmed trying to bring up Godly children in this world today. And, your words really put it all into perspective for me because, in the end, HE (God) WINS! I thank you for the reminder. God bless you for making a positive difference in the life of my son who is trying his best to put on the full armour of God every day in public high school and who wants to be a “light” in the darkness, and who is also very greatful for your books!!!
8 years after you I found myself reading the ‘For Parents Tab’ and when I got to the line you quote above I too found myself overcome with the truth and power behind those words. Even at it’s loudest evil is nothing to the Creator of the Universe, the Alpha and Omega, the I AM.
I am so glad that this truth is still as true today as it was eight years ago and will be until the end of time.