[SPEAKER_04]: Christian parenting.
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Bible for Kids Podcast with your hosts, author Trisha Goyer, and author and co-creator of Veggie Tales, Mike Nuraki.
[SPEAKER_00]: If instilling biblical values and kids is important to you, this podcast will give you the resources, wisdom, and hope to do just that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now let's join our hosts, Trisha, and Mike for this week's episode.
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to the Bible for Kids Podcast.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm Trisha Goyer, and I'm Mike Naraki.
[SPEAKER_05]: Trisha and I have the pleasure of having Brock Eastman and Sean Stevenson on the podcast today, authors of the Action Adventure Book, The Soar's Secret.
[SPEAKER_01]: And like always, we'd like to start every Bible for Kids Podcast with a Bible verse.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, Mike.
[SPEAKER_05]: Today's verses from Matthew 1323 of the New Living Testament, the seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God's Word and produce a harvest of 30, 60, and even a hundred times as much as has been planted.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's a perfect foundation for our conversation today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, Brock Eastman is a veteran in the kids' media space, known for his work with Adventures in Odyssey in Quest for the King series.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sean Stevenson is a creative storyteller with a passion for middle-grade fiction that keeps kids on the edge of their seats together.
[SPEAKER_01]: They've created parable port, a town where Jesus' story is literally kind of alive.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love this.
[SPEAKER_01]: And after writing news,
[SPEAKER_01]: With the middle grade heart in mind, it has the fast pace action and the gentle weaving of God's truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I can't wait to see where this episode goes.
[SPEAKER_01]: So welcome guys.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, welcome, Brock.
[SPEAKER_05]: Welcome, Sean.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_05]: We were talking a little bit about, you know, before we, you know, pressed record, but maybe tell our listeners a little about, you know, where you guys are joining us from and your families and what you spend most of your days doing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, most of my day is doing well, well, I'm Brock and I live in Colorado and I've got four kiddos, I've got a 16, 14, 12 and 10 year old.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's kind of fun writing middle grade stuff.
[SPEAKER_03]: And,
[SPEAKER_03]: I think see if they like it and I don't know Trisha Mike if you have the experience where you give them something and they look at it I'm not reading that dad That's a hard pass dad But I will say this Declan my 10 year old is obsessed with parable port and he has been asking we're reading book three right now Which is still in the you know dead at stage and it is so much on so I maybe I've hit something there We've shown I might have struck something some gold there with them, but I have
[SPEAKER_03]: I work for a political David C. Cook also and I work on the action Bible, which is an illustrate graphic novel Bible all day long.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then by night, that's when I write.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, that's amazing.
[SPEAKER_05]: There's a superhero story here somewhere.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so when I'm Sean Stevenson, I'm a children's pastor by day and then a writer by night.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I live in Illinois with my wife and we love doing all kinds of fun things.
[SPEAKER_02]: We are big thrifters, we're big on reading and so.
[SPEAKER_02]: When this opportunity came up to work with Brock, we kind of sat down, Brock and I and we're like, okay, let's do something together.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like what could we do?
[SPEAKER_02]: And we were so excited about it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was fun just to take like Brock's knowledge of like the fiction world and all those things.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then my past is a children's pastor and like bringing it all together.
[SPEAKER_02]: Cause, you know, as a children's pastor, I see a lot of kids that come through our church doors and they're always talking about books.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so it's fun to talk to them, be like, okay, what books are you reading?
[SPEAKER_02]: What books do you like?
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, Dead Sea Squirrels are one of them that I hear often, that they are awesome.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, very good.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I hear a lot of different books that parents are always looking for.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I'm always looking for, okay, what could we do to help fill some needs and help kids be excited about learning about God's Word and discovering who God is?
[SPEAKER_02]: And so,
[SPEAKER_02]: I couldn't be more excited about this book series.
[SPEAKER_02]: I literally couldn't.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's so wonderful.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I love actually hearing that you hear, you know, listen to kids all the time coming in, talking about books.
[SPEAKER_05]: I love the fact that kids are reading, which is just wonderful.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I also Sean have to compliment you on your background.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, it's just so artistic.
[SPEAKER_05]: I wish our our viewing our listening audience could see it because it's like made perfectly.
[SPEAKER_05]: Your lighting is great.
[SPEAKER_05]: Your background is great.
[SPEAKER_05]: Do you do a podcast too, or you just just have an eye for visuals?
[SPEAKER_02]: I just like doing all kinds of stuff with this room and my wife is the genius behind it, but okay, I actually do a lot of booktube, so booktube is a thing on YouTube where people talk about books, and so I like talking about Christian fiction and talking about books that are not Christian specifically, but it's led me to some amazing conversations with people about what is Christian fiction and how can impact your life?
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's been like the coolest evangelistic opportunity in my opinion,
[SPEAKER_02]: I love, you know, there's some easter eggs up here.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a Trisha Goyer book right there.
[SPEAKER_01]: That brought the bones.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's my goal, I'm yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my goal.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's connecting with my kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've read about gollums and steampunks, so I could spend time with my boys.
[SPEAKER_06]: Sweet.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I love, so I'd love parable for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's such a unique concept, so I'd love to hear the light bulb moment when you realize that the parables of Jesus could actually be turned into high stake adventure series.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so Brock and I had one.
[SPEAKER_02]: it to write a book together for quite a while and we had talked about it and thought about, okay, what can we do?
[SPEAKER_02]: Like what would be fun?
[SPEAKER_02]: And one day I was talking to my wife and I was telling her as a children's pastor I said, I wish there were books about parables.
[SPEAKER_02]: There are just not that many books about parables because we were doing a parable series with our kids at church and I was wanting to like recommend some different things to the kids to read at home and to their parents but there was zero.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, Brock and I were talking to my wife
[SPEAKER_02]: So Brock and I were talking and we were like okay, what if we do a picture book because Brock at that time You were doing a bunch of picture books and so we thought that would be a really amazing picture book to like illustrate these parables And we thought maybe we could have it like at this garden at this high-rise tower in like New York City and like All the kids in the in the high-rise come together to talk about these parables and then Tindill said they liked the idea, but they said can you make it a middle grade series?
[UNKNOWN]: So
[SPEAKER_02]: We went back to the drawing board and said, okay, what could we do here?
[SPEAKER_02]: And so we decided to come up with this town where the parables literally come to life.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the kids in the story are discovering these parables piecing it all together, while the kids reading the story are also discovering the parable and piecing it all together.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Tassel was like this perfect combination of helping kids have so much fun with this
[SPEAKER_02]: teaching them about who God is through the stories Jesus told.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's wonderful.
[SPEAKER_05]: I thought all you had to do to make a middle grade reader was just have a early reader and then just have the characters start using deodorant for the first time.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's the hair excerpt from it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, I love that.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, your main character, Anthony, he's a new kid looking for a fresh start.
[SPEAKER_05]: So can you talk a little bit about how his journey of discovery kind of reflects a way a child might first, you know, hear and understand God's word.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, you know, Anthony does have some general background, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: His mom is constantly saying things like, oh, thank you, Jesus.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you, Jesus, for moments to happen.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so we see them.
[SPEAKER_03]: We start, we open on the scene of them entering parallel porn.
[SPEAKER_03]: They're moving to a new town.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you know there's something to history here.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're not exactly sure what's going on.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, the dad's not in the picture.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just him and mom trying to get a fresh start in this town.
[SPEAKER_03]: And something kind of happens at Sparkshark.
[SPEAKER_03]: What was that?
[SPEAKER_03]: What was that moment?
[SPEAKER_03]: And you hear his mom kind of say, oh, thank you, Jesus, because, you know, they were protected.
[SPEAKER_03]: They didn't nothing went wrong and Anthony's kind of like, oh, there she goes again doing that.
[SPEAKER_03]: So he's kind of, he's got this familiarity of church.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not like there's no Jesus is, but he's like, why do I need it?
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, what is really bad or like, I'm a good kid, but it's just over the top mom.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's what we kind of start.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so we could find them in town and there's just, we,
[SPEAKER_03]: Sean and I, you can ask us later, we talk about our favorite characters, but he bumps into this character who I absolutely love and have a blast riding forward.
[SPEAKER_03]: His name is Duck.
[SPEAKER_03]: What we find about Duck is he's just very easy going kindhearted.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's a sports kid.
[SPEAKER_03]: He just has a big family and him and Anthony just hit off.
[SPEAKER_03]: Anthony likes to, uh, he likes to skateboard, duck lives right by anything that sports or acuity related duck is into.
[SPEAKER_03]: So he's like, let me try that.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so we start to see them start to just kind of go around town and experience
[SPEAKER_03]: And he's like, hey, you know, I go to this church.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're going to be there tomorrow and nothing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: Next day, of course, I'm going to go to church.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so they go to church and when he gets there, then he meets several other kids that are part of this, this crew that we'll talk about.
[SPEAKER_03]: But his story is kind of, I think like a typical like I grew up as a kid, like I grew up in the church.
[SPEAKER_03]: We went every Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday nights, whether I want to or not.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Jackie fans, dress shirt.
[SPEAKER_03]: Always new.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's close.
[SPEAKER_05]: All you went to a church where you had to dress up.
[SPEAKER_05]: I was Nazarene, I could go in jeans, man.
[SPEAKER_03]: Mike, coming to Colorado, as I was like an adult, gay man, coming to Colorado, walking to Colorado Church, and people are in jeans, I was what in the world, these are sinners.
[SPEAKER_03]: You started to overturn the tables.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was right.
[SPEAKER_03]: And now I wear my jeans to church now and let my I've realized that's probably not what makes you a Christian.
[SPEAKER_05]: It took me a long time.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, exactly.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, Christian and it has nothing to do with genetics.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, wait, that's the wrong type of jeans that we're talking about.
[SPEAKER_03]: You are always funny.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, okay back to the back to the book guys.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, wait, wait.
[SPEAKER_05]: Before we get back to the book, I just noticed that our timer, our 10-minute timer is expired.
[SPEAKER_05]: So let's go ahead and take a short break and we'll be right back on the Bible for kids.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Welcome back to the Bible for Kids Podcast, Trish and I are speaking with authors, Brock Eastman and Sean Stevenson.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Brock, since you let us to this question, tell us about the characters, maybe some of your favorite characters, I would love to hear about that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Would love to, and I feel like right there with Mike brought us back in, he's slipping the layer of the cucumber.
[SPEAKER_03]: Is that just me?
[SPEAKER_04]: He does it.
[SPEAKER_04]: You can go and talk and we talk it with Brock and Sean has gone, guys.
[SPEAKER_04]: He was doing like he didn't bring us in.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I'll take this a little bit of pitch in there.
[SPEAKER_05]: I am.
[SPEAKER_03]: I love Mike.
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you, Trisha.
[SPEAKER_03]: I know Sean's got his.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I mentioned doc and the truth is, and his kids read this and they'll, if you watch my Instagram, you'll see my kid deck in his 10 years old.
[SPEAKER_03]: He is a soccer kid.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's number 20 and he loves catch up.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's all you really need to do.
[SPEAKER_03]: Catch up on everything.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so it was really easy to write product.
[SPEAKER_03]: Because a lot of what I channeled and wrote when I was, because Sean I co-wrote, so we would go back and forth back and forth and later, there's so much of those of us, and it's hard to say who wrote what at this point, but when I was thinking about Duck, I was headdeckling in my mind, and it was just so much fun, and it makes it easy when you know this, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: And so, yeah, he's my favorite, probably because that's the part of it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think his good natured heart, his love, like, there's no, he's never met my favorite saying, I went outside to find a friend, but could not find one there.
[SPEAKER_03]: I went outside to be a friend, and friends were everywhere, and yeah, that's duck in my mind.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's no, it doesn't want to be a friend with, so I love that about him.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I hope that's your pleasure question, but yeah, duck, duck is my favorite for sure.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yep, and Sean already answered his.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, my favorite, I'll let you hear it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Most definitely, I love Abulita Rosita, who is our Sunday school teacher in this series.
[SPEAKER_02]: She shows up in each book.
[SPEAKER_02]: And as a children's pastor, she's like, kind of the epitome to me of those Sunday school church ladies who taught me about Jesus and I hope it don't cry.
[SPEAKER_02]: But,
[SPEAKER_02]: those ladies who faithfully showed up every week to teach us about Jesus and to tell us these stories again and again and so we wanted to put Abelita in this story as that person who is in these kids' lives and is always ready to tell them about Jesus and encourage them and pray with them and she also has this apron that she has all these different object lessons she can just pull out
[SPEAKER_02]: here's all of a sudden a packet of seeds and oh here's a whole plant and here's a bunch of rocks and she's somehow just has this apron that's always full of object lessons that she can use to help teach the kids about Jesus.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I love Abelita Rosita.
[SPEAKER_02]: She is the Children's Ministry person I want to be and I also really love J.R.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was kind of our co-lead in the book.
[SPEAKER_02]: She is a future podcaster that is her dream to have a famous podcaster.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well yes it is very, very glamorous.
[SPEAKER_02]: So she's always interviewing her friends and kind of like sneaking her phone up towards them as they're talking to record what they're saying and put it into our podcast, which is so much fun.
[SPEAKER_03]: Depending on what state you're in, that's either legal or illegal.
[SPEAKER_03]: You scan a QR code and you can listen to episodes of GR's podcast.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's really fun.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's really silly.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that one here more about this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at that was, you're making this art.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mike and I write nice questions and you're making this hop-o-over.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm just going to interview with me and Brock.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, now I'm just gonna ask like talk about the penguin cast and this boots on the Grand Podcast set and wits and how are you how are you doing this?
[SPEAKER_01]: Cause this is like this is like breaking the wall or taking another level for the kids to get involved.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, and I will say, just to clarify, Sean is abolitionist or Zeta.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, you know, I got to go back to the first question when he, when we talk between perbles, I think when Sean brought it up, I said, picture book because that's the closest, I'm the, the level I'm going to be able to understand the perbles.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: So smart.
[SPEAKER_03]: So when he does his avolitos, he's a moment and some of the lines he adds and there are just hilarious because like, oh, sand, we have to give it all the time.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, she, he's got all the tricks of the trade and they come through an avolitos.
[SPEAKER_04]: So, oh my goodness.
[SPEAKER_03]: I love there's so much of us in these characters.
[SPEAKER_03]: As when you guys write your books, I'm sure the same thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I, all kinds of Mike and Merle, 24, seven, three, yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: More, I was 100% Mike.
[SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, I think, you know, the penguin cast, you're question, the boots on the ground, you know, what we want to do as you kind of break the wall, it's really about multimedia, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: It's allowing the book to extend itself into media that we know kids also want to consume.
[SPEAKER_03]: My daughter, Wairely, is listening to audiobooks, adventures, not to see her favorite one is, oh man, it's Jessie Floria and Bob Smiley, average boy, the average boy, yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: loves listening to that night.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so it's kind of like, okay, how do we do that?
[SPEAKER_03]: Like we can't produce a full-on podcast.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like we need to focus on books.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a lot of work as you guys know.
[SPEAKER_03]: But how can we end into that world a little bit to bring the digital media?
[SPEAKER_03]: And so we've done it in a way that you're not getting duplicate content.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're getting some extra content in a way that feels like it's a natural part of the storytelling because J.R. like Sean said is a podcaster.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's what she wants to do.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you're hearing this from a kid.
[SPEAKER_03]: So the beauty of it is we want to inspire other kids
[SPEAKER_03]: I could go to a podcast.
[SPEAKER_03]: I could create a Christian podcast.
[SPEAKER_03]: I could tell a story that kids start to explore their imagination.
[SPEAKER_03]: And they tell stories from their point of view.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think we get some of the richest, most creative stuff we can.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, hopefully our idea is that this penguin cast, hearing it from the character they like J.R., will also make them think, I could go do that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Why not?
[SPEAKER_03]: And so yeah, there's just a lot of fun, you guys.
[SPEAKER_03]: And all the different ways we're creating in content.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, sorry, Sean, I don't want to add.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, and I know like when I was a kid reading books and even today when I read books, there are those series that you read that you're just like, I want a little more from this world.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, you haven't spent more time here and so we thought, oh, this will be such a fun way to help kids and parents like read it together, listen to it together, and we put discussion questions into each book.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that way parents and kids can have discussions about the parables and about the topics that are in the book.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that way we can spark these faith conversations because I think as a children's pastor, that's so important to me.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I ask parents all the time, are you reading what your kids are reading?
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you're reading it, talk to them about it, have these conversations because it's so important.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, that's wonderful.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's wonderful.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, and the term reluctant reader is an ear and dear to my heart because I love it when parents come up to me and say, oh, you know, my my son or my daughter usually doesn't enjoy reading, but they just love, you know, the squirrels books or, you know, these kids, and your books are designed for the reluctant reader.
[SPEAKER_05]: And can you talk about why that was an important
[SPEAKER_05]: for you and, you know, including things like the map of the town and illustrations, you know, kind of, those things could kind of keep kids going along through the stories.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we really wanted it to be a series that kids who feel like, okay, is there a book for me?
[SPEAKER_02]: I just work in a Christian bookstore and Someday I'll have to talk about my experience being Bob the Tomato, but some other story for another day.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, no time like the President.
[SPEAKER_02]: As a person who used to work at a Christian bookstore, like I would always see kids come in and they look at books and kind of squint at them and wonder, like, is this a book that I could read and they would wonder about it?
[SPEAKER_02]: And so,
[SPEAKER_02]: When we were talking about parable port, we knew we wanted it to be fast pace.
[SPEAKER_02]: We wanted a lot of action and humor and things like a map.
[SPEAKER_02]: So kids could get just totally involved in the world of parable port and be just kind of pulled in to what is happening with the characters.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it just pulls them along as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: Especially for those kids that reading is not always their favorite thing to do, we want this to book to be a book that they say, okay, readings really fun.
[SPEAKER_02]: What else is out there that I can read too?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, yeah, no, that's great.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, brought anything to add to that.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I saw you nodding along.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah, no, he nailed it.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, why don't we go ahead and take another short break?
[SPEAKER_05]: We'll take another short break and we'll be right back on the Bible for kids.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to the Bible for Kids Podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are here with Brock and Sean talking about their amazing book.
[SPEAKER_05]: So, the book features a silky chicken chase and secret passages, and I read that right.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes, silky chicken chase, it's like, I'm reading those words, and I'm thinking, am I saying, oh, the right words?
[SPEAKER_05]: Kind of forgot the note, so I can't have any idea what you're thinking.
[SPEAKER_05]: Can you talk a little bit about just the use of humor and action, and, you know,
[SPEAKER_03]: You mentioned relative reader earlier and I am I'm I'm always admitting when I talk to kids about writing I've now I think I'm
[SPEAKER_03]: I've written something like 20 some books.
[SPEAKER_03]: I've been part of the Go Bible Project.
[SPEAKER_03]: The Acts about I've been in publishing now for I don't know, 17 years.
[SPEAKER_03]: And if you would ask me in middle school high school about any books, I'd like to know.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't read anything.
[SPEAKER_03]: I played video.
[SPEAKER_03]: I played Sonic the Hedgehog on Sega Genesis.
[SPEAKER_06]: That's what I played.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's my jam.
[SPEAKER_03]: Until it wasn't until I started reading a series in college with my wife.
[SPEAKER_03]: We were actually racing through a series together.
[SPEAKER_06]: And then.
[SPEAKER_03]: Wow, like there's whole world to explore here.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is pretty cool.
[SPEAKER_03]: These characters are like coming to life.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is really fun.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's why I stepped down to write my first book.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so the reason why I told you that is because I am and was a reluctant reader, even not like audio books or regular reading.
[SPEAKER_03]: But when Sean and I sit out to write this, and I think he has done this in his other series.
[SPEAKER_03]: I've done this in my series.
[SPEAKER_03]: Trisha, you said the question for the king, but it's the question for the truth.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: Sorry, thank you endorsed in least Trisha.
[SPEAKER_03]: You endorsed the third book.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it was a file like, it was a file like that.
[SPEAKER_03]: He was out in 13.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was forever ago, Trisha.
[SPEAKER_03]: You bring a hundred more books since then.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I think, you know, Sean, I both had this perspective on writing stories that were good and engaging and brought kids along and adventure that they'd want to read the next page.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, cliffhangers keep them going.
[SPEAKER_03]: And humor is a natural part of who we are.
[SPEAKER_03]: We joke, we tease,
[SPEAKER_03]: our love language at my house here at the Eastman House is laughter and fun and pleasing and fun.
[SPEAKER_03]: So to really bring a story along that kids would engage with and you need to be fast pace and action.
[SPEAKER_03]: You mentioned the silky chickens.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's hilarious.
[SPEAKER_03]: You mentioned these secret passages.
[SPEAKER_03]: These vines attacking.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's so much happening in any given parable.
[SPEAKER_03]: You cannot not turn the next page.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think that's what we want to bring is this action adventure draw kid in the digital hungry to keep going.
[SPEAKER_03]: Declan keeps saying one more chapter.
[SPEAKER_03]: you know, it's so much fun.
[SPEAKER_03]: And the humor just becomes a natural part of him and my conversation, the silky chickens, they're actually from, and you know this, you know Taliah messing there, uh, yes, and you got no her.
[SPEAKER_03]: So she actually goes, you know what?
[SPEAKER_03]: What about these adding silky chickens?
[SPEAKER_03]: So we did that.
[SPEAKER_03]: We took the silky chickens and added in.
[SPEAKER_03]: She sent us a picture of them like that's hilarious.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, please silky chickens.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, part of our collaborative personality.
[SPEAKER_05]: The world needs more silky chickens, really.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's all there is to it.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's part of Sean and I's collaborative personality.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're making the best story we can for kids.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's no ego here.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's what is the best.
[SPEAKER_03]: So when Tali introduced an idea, it was like, that's a great idea.
[SPEAKER_03]: How do we do this?
[SPEAKER_03]: How do we integrate that into the story?
[SPEAKER_03]: And we believe the more kind of moments like that inspiration can come from all kinds of places.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to get a really good story that kids are just going to find their place in.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hence, we have a cast of characters with six kids.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a kid or a character for everyone in the story that they can connect to and draw inspiration from.
[SPEAKER_03]: Because ultimately, we're going to connect them back to Jesus and we all get the Jews in a little bit different way, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: Our path is not the same.
[SPEAKER_03]: No matter what, how do you get there?
[SPEAKER_03]: So that was a really long answer.
[SPEAKER_03]: I probably answered five more questions.
[SPEAKER_03]: Trisha had.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, if you haven't talked about the devotional yet, let's talk about that aspect in the back in the book and then kind of, because it's really trimming story time into something you can actually go deeper like those covers that you know, that's when kids want to talk to you like go to sleep kid and they're like, what about this?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, and today about this you're like, oh my gosh, so I'm going to talk like this.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think one of the things that we like we I said earlier is we really want this to be a book that not only is fun for kids to read but parents enjoy reading it along with their kids and grandparents enjoy reading it and so having a devotional as part of the book at the back and kind of help like not only the kids.
[SPEAKER_02]: have that conversation about, okay, let's, you know, set aside all of the, the trappings of the excitement and the things and like boil down to okay, what is Jesus saying in this parable like what is he talking about and kind of giving kids that language to be able to think about it and process it because I think one of the things that I have always believed is I believe it's a sin to make the Bible boring.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so through parable port, we're like, okay, we're making this such an exciting story.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then we can have this calm moment with this devotional where parents and kids and grandparents can sit down together and read it and really talk about it and think about, okay, what is God saying through this passage?
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, how has God speaking to us in language that kids can understand?
[SPEAKER_02]: As I think,
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not about dumbing down anything for kids, kids are way smarter than we give them credit for, and they bring so much to the table when it comes to faith.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so this is a way to spark that conversation.
[SPEAKER_05]: Right, wonderful.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, and a lot of times, you know, kids, kids are a lot smarter to give them credit for, and I think as you're, as you're trying to boil down biblical principles,
[SPEAKER_05]: I think you just you just learn more about okay what's the real what what what what is this real meaning here and I think it just you know help it helping to clarify that by by quote unquote simplifying it I think you know is is a great process to go through so all right, so do you guys you know I'm gonna ask this question, but I already I think the answer is duh, of course Do you foresee Anthony in the crew visiting other parables in the future?
[SPEAKER_03]: There's four books currently contracted.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yes, four more perils coming.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: This one comes up March 3rd, the next one, June 9th, and a year later and then a year later from that and the reason why the fourth book got bumped out so far is because it's going so well, we're getting so much excitement around it from the industry who are buying in the book.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: If you're listening to podcast, go buy it from Barnes & Noble.
[SPEAKER_03]: They are really, really excited about both the first two books.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: that they brought it into their stores on the shelves.
[SPEAKER_03]: And for us, that's a big deal.
[SPEAKER_03]: I know Trisha Mike, you guys are ubiquitous.
[SPEAKER_03]: You've got books, all over Barnes and Noble.
[SPEAKER_03]: But for me, this is exactly what you put up there.
[SPEAKER_03]: They're bringing it in.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so we've actually pushed for book for out a whole year.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we have a better idea how to wrap it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Because if we go to book five through eight, we don't want to wrap it the same way.
[SPEAKER_03]: We'd wrap it if we were only at four books, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: That's really important to give your readers a nice clean ending.
[SPEAKER_03]: If needed, so they're not like, oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: But if we're gonna keep going, we don't want to wrap it up so tightly.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you're really excited right now There's four we're hoping for more in this podcast and your guys support will help us hopefully go to What Mike are you right like 36 densely squirre books right now?
[SPEAKER_05]: Well 24 yeah 24 but you know 36 would be the next factor
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, that was like 40 parables.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, it was how far this book series could go.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we were excited about where it's going.
[SPEAKER_03]: And with reader support, I mean, kids liking it.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's going to all be part of that.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you know, I'm hoping to have like 120 books like Trisha's something.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's my goal.
[SPEAKER_05]: So, oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: You just, Trisha, you just finished, I saw you post, you just finished your first book of 2026.
[SPEAKER_05]: Is that right?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, that's amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: There you go.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry, I have to close my office doors, I have to go right now.
[SPEAKER_05]: Some people take bubble baths, some people write books.
[UNKNOWN]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's so true.
[SPEAKER_01]: You guys are so fun, so Brock and Sean, thank you so much for joining us today.
[SPEAKER_01]: But before we go, share our listeners, connect with you, and learn more about the so we're secret.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you can find me online at shonstevensonbooks.com and also on Instagram at shonstevensonbooks.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you can find the soar secret anywhere that you buy books including Christian Retail.
[SPEAKER_02]: So definitely, take a look for it.
[SPEAKER_03]: right.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm at Brock Eastman.com.
[SPEAKER_03]: I know it's really complex.
[SPEAKER_03]: Or fizzlebop.com.
[SPEAKER_03]: You remember that, Mike?
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh yeah, I don't remember fizzlebop.
[SPEAKER_03]: You can find us there parableborkport.com.
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll cover the series and also Penguin Catholic Trisha's excited to listen to.
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe we can get Trisha to do a voice for us.
[SPEAKER_06]: Sean that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, I'm sure if your mics in our non-compeets.
[SPEAKER_03]: We probably can't do that.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, no, I'm, I, I'd be happy to guys believe me.
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, it'd be great.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's Luther Hoppett.
[SPEAKER_05]: Senate here.
[SPEAKER_03]: It happened here.
[SPEAKER_05]: All right.
[UNKNOWN]: All right.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, man.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, man.
[SPEAKER_05]: This is a blast, you guys.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you so much.
[SPEAKER_05]: Listeners.
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[SPEAKER_05]: The Bible for kids is now a 501c3 non-profit.
[SPEAKER_05]: And we'd love to have you join us in our mission of reaching the kids with a message of the Bible.
[SPEAKER_05]: Visit the Bibleforkids.com to explore our store, donate, and learn more today.
[SPEAKER_05]: We'll see you next time.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thanks, guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening to the Bible for Kids Podcast with Trisha Goyer and Mike Nurekki.
[SPEAKER_00]: Be sure to connect with the Bible for kids on Instagram, Facebook and at thebibelforkids.com.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible for Kids Podcast is powered by the Christian Parenting Podcast Network.
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