Thank you, thank you, thank you, Miss Teresa!

I took the kids to the library yesterday, desperate for a new load of books. I’d just found out the unhappy news that our house is not a candidate for cable TV. I was finally exhausted from three years of the same half-dozen fuzzy local channels, and this week we’d decided maybe it was time to branch out and allow a little more variety into our home.

But the cable company came out and informed us our country home sits too far back from the road for cable. Our only option is satellite, which I don’t want. We had satellite several years ago when we lived even further out in the country, and the satellite company was always giving us free “sneak peeks” at upgrades. Our kids were toddlers then, but now that they’re old enough to handle the remote, I don’t even want to take the risk that they might flip to something that would become permanently etched in their minds.

No can do. So we’re back to the books. Which is fine. Better even.

So I walked into the children’s department and asked our librarian, Miss Teresa, what she recommended for our kids’ ages. “I’m especially looking for chapter books for my rising third grade daughter,” I told her. And I added with a whisper, “She still likes checking out picture books, but I want her to move on, you know?”

Miss Teresa smiled at me. “I’ve got the perfect books for you.”

We followed her back to the “L” section, and she showed me Christian author Bevery Lewis writes a children’s series called The Cul-de-Sac Kids. We checked out Pickle Pizza and a few others.

“Look,” she whispered. “These are published by Bethany House. All of their books are Christian!” Her eyes lit up with excitement. “I try to buy as many as I can. These are wonderful.”

I wanted to reach over and give her a gigantic hug — but with a wiggling baby on my hip, tote bag overflowing, it was not possible.

She started pulling more books off the shelf. “Here are some good mysteries your son might like,” she said to me. “The Bloodhound series by Bill Myers are also published by Bethany House.”

Am I the last person in the world to discover Bill Myers? Wow! I looked him up, and his books and videos have sold over six million copies. He’s published with Zondervan, Tommy Nelson, and Bethany House, among others. So we brought home The Ghost of KRZY. I was a little concerned it looked too easy for my almost ten-year-old, who plowed through The Lord of the Rings trilogy this past year, but my son loves this book. In fact, he’s finished it, ready for another.

What a relief to know my kids are reading books by Christian authors, whose faith will be woven into the pages of the book. And it’s pure joy to know my children’s librarian is a kindred spirit. Miss Teresa also told me she bought the Landon Snow books, which are published by Barbour. I reviewed Landon Snow and the Auctor’s Riddle last fall.

So I ask, does your children’s librarian know what kind of books you want your children to read?

P.S. Another great series for kids is the Wilderking trilogy, published by Broadman & Holman. There’s a new interview up with author Jonathan Rogers over at Gina Holmes’ wonderful blog, Novel Journey.