Ruth Chinery and “Out of the Woods”

Let’s talk about something perfectly charming: a Lutheran eighth grader has published her first book! Out of the Woods looks like a charming read about an eleven year old who runs into the woods with her twin brother and gets lost. According to the back of the book, Ruth Chinery completed her first draft in fifth grade and now, five drafts and three years later, it’s published. Way to go! I may be a stranger, but I am so proud of your tenacity! That’s the way to do it: get it down, spend the time and energy, and then hold that book in your hands!

Dear readers, let’s consider holding that book in our own hands too. Maybe also as gifts for readers up to sixth grade (according to the Amazon suggestion). I mean, isn’t this what our kids’ Amazon wish lists are for? Don’t we wish Ruth Chinery were suddenly a neighborhood friend?

I find this news delightfully encouraging. We Lutheran writers are all in this together, different generations and different places typing our texts and doing what we can with the ideas in our heads. Black on white: here we all come! Will we edit? Sure. Will we grumble? Oh yeah. But can we persevere? Yes! Whether we are ten, twenty, or any other digit or combination thereof! 🙂

I want to be like this eighth grade author, Ruth Chinery! Anyone with me? And, of course, let’s smile to think of her author dad, James Chinery—who will have another book coming out—cheering her on!