Growing Up In Faith with author Penny Reeve
- Valerie
- 1 day ago
- 16 min read
Penny Reeve's Tania Adventure series asks a big question about generosity in Camp Max on this week's BookWorthy Podcast.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity but reflects the full conversation from the BookWorthy Podcast. Grab a cup of coffee, listen, and read along. This post does contain affiliate links. Thanks for your support.
Valerie - Welcome to Bookworthy, where we talk about the heart behind the books your kids are reading. Today, we're talking with award-winning author of more than 25 books for children, including picture books, novels, and nonfiction from the land down under, Reeve. Penny loves sharing her stories with children and encouraging them to respond to this complex, fascinating, and sometimes difficult world we live in. Welcome to Bookworthy Penny.
Penny - Thank you, Valerie. I'm so excited to be here and chat about books with you.
Valerie - I am excited to chat with you, too. It's we've kind of connected through a couple of other organizations, and it's like, I get to actually see your face this time. But to see, start us off, we're going to start with our random question of the week, which is what was your first job?
Random Question of the Week
Penny - Well, probably my very first job was babysitting. But my actual first proper official job, where like I got pay slips and everything, was in a really fabulous place called Teen Center. Now you've got to get a bit of context here because Teen Center was a center for teens, as the name implies, in a place called Ocarumpa in Papua New Guinea. And that's where my family was living at that time, and I was sent off to Ocarumpa to go to boarding school. And while I was there in this community of about 800 different people and going to school, I applied for my first job at Teen Centre, and it was very scary. I had to dress all the right things to go for my job interview, and I got the job. I was so excited. I think I got like three Kina 14 an hour using the Papua New Guinea currency at the time. And I learned all sorts of really important things, as you would in a fast food restaurant. So I learned how to make hamburgers. I learned how to make floats, which we call spiders here, the ice cream, and the fizzy drink. But because there were a lot of Americans who were carromper at that time, I had to learn how to make floats, blueberry floats, Coke floats, hamburgers, and fries. Yeah, no one wanted to be on fries duty because you always end up full of grease by the end of your shift. But yeah, that was my first job.
Valerie - Yeah. Very exciting. It's neat to be in a different place and also doing something that is semi-familiar to just about anybody. Know. I bet, I bet it was. It's one of those, like, as you mentioned, babysitting, like, yeah, that probably was technically my first job, but with pay slips and paying taxes, it was something totally different. Well, maybe not because instead of babysitting, I was taking care of dogs at a vet clinic. So they're similar. There are some similarities there, just a little bit. Very true. Well, Penny, tell us a little bit about your Tanya Abbey adventures in the latest in the series, Camp Max.
The Inspiration Behind Penny Reeve's Camp Max
Penny - This was a series that I started writing basically because I had a question, and that question was, how, nurse, does your average nine- 10 ten-year-old old child, how do they live out their faith in a realistic way? That's not just about being good. Like, if our faith is just about being a good kid, then I think we're missing the mark. And so I wanted to kind of explore that idea because I remember being about nine and sort of my parents got like, I think it was the Leprosy Mission magazine and it came through and I remember reading the stories in there thinking, I wanna do something to help, but I was only nine and I couldn't think of how could a nine year old do anything? I didn't have a job, and wasn't working at the teen center then. So how could I help with issues around the world? And I remember that real sense of hopelessness. And so when I came to writing this series of books, I wanted to address that feeling of hopelessness and be able to show kids through stories, fun stories, what you could do inspired by your faith to respond to the needs of the world's poor, just needs that you see around yourself. And so that's what inspired me to write this series. So basically, the series of books is about a girl called Tanya, Tanya Abbey, and she lives in Australia. Well, that's where I live. So that's why I thought I'd said it. And she is basically in each book trying to address those kinds of issues. So the first book in the first book, she wants to raise money to buy a goat from a charity gift catalog. You know, there's the do you have those gift catalogs as well, where you might buy the thing you don't get, the thing someone in another country would get. So she really wants to buy this $50 goat for somebody in another country, but she doesn't have enough money. She's only got enough money for the back leg of a goat. And so that's the name of that book. It's called The Back Leg of a Goat. So she has to come up with a plan with her friends to raise the money. And along the way, she's also learning what it means to be God's friend and to be God's child. And does that influence the decisions she makes? In the second book, she wants to go on this advocacy march to prove to her teacher what a good student she is, and the advocacy march is about clean water. And her mom says, Well, fine, you can go as long as you understand the issues. You can't just go to sort of impress your teacher. You've got to go because you understand. So I thought to myself, how on earth can I make my 10-year-old character, Tanya, understand the importance of clean water? Well, of course, I'll bring a sewage disaster into the story. So there's an overflowing toilet, and there's all this drama.
And she finally understands why clean water is so important. So she can then go and do this march, believing the issues and understanding the issues. And there's a faith theme that runs alongside that as well. In these books, I really wanted to make sure that the faith theme intertwines with the plot of the story in a way that you cannot separate the two. They really interplay with each other. And then in Camp Max, which is the most recent one, Tanya really wants to go to a camp, like a summer camp with her best friend Emily. And so she's made all these plans, and she's so keen to go on this camp with her friend. But then it turns out that Emily's parents, instead of saving the money so that Emily can pay for her camp ticket, the parents have given the money away to a hospice in another country. So Tanya's kind of got this sort of ethical dilemma going on here, where she's, well, she can't really be cross with Emily's parents because they did a good thing, but now her friend can't go to camp with her. And so the two girls come up with the idea to enter a talent quest. And because the prize of the talent quest is a ticket to camp. But of course, things do not go as expected. And so in that story, I'm really exploring ideas of generosity, of how faith impacts friendship, and forgiveness. There are a lot of kinds of complicated themes in that story, but very real. I mean, it doesn't matter how old you are, when our faith hits reality, there's sometimes a bit of a wrestle that we have to do. And so that's what I've been exploring with these books. I really love them because I get to be real.
it doesn't matter how old you are, when our faith hits reality, there's sometimes a bit of a wrestle that we have to do. And so that's what I've been exploring with these books.
Valerie - I love that. And to take these, you know, very complex ideas, but make that nine and 10 year olds are, you know, facing them. They're starting to think about the world outside of themselves a little bit. And, you know, feeling that hopelessness is that I'm too small. I'm, I have no money. I'm just a kid. It was like, well, no, there's a lot of power in being a kid. And even in the Bible, there are tons of children who did amazing things because of their faithfulness, because of their willingness to step forward. And I think that that's something that we can give our kids through books like your series, and just reminding them that their faith is not in opposition to their actions. Like they can work together. And I love that for young kiddos.
Penny - Mm, very much. Yeah.
Valerie - That's too fun. Well, you kind of hit on this a little bit, but what do you hope to communicate to kids that read Camp Max?
The Message Behind Penny Reeve's Camp Max
Penny - I think with each of these books, I do always have a question, as I mentioned. And so the question with Camp Max is, what is the cost of generosity? And so although the books are a series, you can definitely read any one that you want at any time. And so for this one, you don't have to know the backstory to be able to understand that issue of, if I want to be generous, that sometimes does come with a cost. And am I willing to face that cost? You know, sometimes we think that kids are selfish and they only want things for themselves. But I think they're just like adults, and we all have to weigh it up. And in this book, there's a real sense where Tanya has to weigh up her relationship with Emily. How important is her relationship with Emily? Is the camp more important than her relationship with Emily? They work hard towards their goal, but the ending is not quite what you expect. And as she's learning about that, she's learning about the love of God as well. And it's the love of God that is really key in this book. It's the verse that I use in this one, this is how God showed his love among us, you know, by giving his son. That generosity of God is the underlying faith theme that motivates Tanya and her learning, and the story that takes place. So yeah, it's about generosity, it's about the cost of giving, and it's about the importance of love and friendship.
Valerie - I love that. I love that you say that there's a little unexpected ending. It's usually, there are some books that, when you're in this age range, you want to wrap up like a, you know, 90s sitcom and, you know, be done in 30 minutes and all in perfectly. And it's one of those misnomers that, you know, I know growing up, you know, it's like, everything is not going to fix itself in 30 minutes. And it might turn out differently. It might turn out not the way you expect it, but that doesn't mean it's bad. And I think that's a really sweet thing to teach our kids to look at the positive side, because it's really easy to look at the negative with social media and all the things our kids are exposed to. And they're exposed to just that negativity all the time. And I think to be reminded that we can take, look at our world through a positive lens, and even that God looks at us with a positive lens, which is sometimes hard to believe.
Penny - Yes, and I think too, because when we're doing faith, and we're doing life with Jesus, you know, unexpected things do happen. And so being able to take that positivity that you're talking about, being able to trust God for the good things that we have, you know, the desires that we have of our hearts as well. And I think that sort of being able to negotiate that faith journey is something that kids and adults all need.
Valerie - Yeah, it's one of those. I find it fun to read through because I read a lot of middle-grade books because of this podcast. Is like, you know, I really wish I had this middle-grade book when I was 10 years old, my life would have been a little bit different.
Penny - Yeah, very much so. And I think that's one of the reasons I write this sort of book for kids, because when I was in school, you know, 10, 11, 12, I was at school and people used to pick on me because of my faith. Yeah. And so, I didn't have a lot of Christian friends in my community that I lived in at that time. And so I went to Christian children's fiction, which was kind of just starting at that time. And those guys showed me how to live for Jesus. You know, they were fictional characters, but they kind of were my role models. Only, like, I literally put two and two together about this just in the last couple of years. And I realized this is why I want to write this kind of stuff as well, because, you know, we need our kids to need role models. They need role models in fiction to help them know it's okay. You know, these issues matter. It's okay to keep growing and learning and making mistakes. You know, that's part of the journey.
Valerie - That's part of life. Or as I tell my kids, you know, I have three, and there's the phrase, it's not fair comes up a lot because they're kids. But to be reminded, like, yes, we live in a broken world. Welcome. Welcome. Enjoy the scenery because it's not fair, but it's fun to just, they kind of give me a look like, why, why are you happy about this, mom? I'm like, I know who wins at the end, so I don't need to worry about it. Too fun. Well, Penny, when did your writing journey begin?
Penny Reeve's Writing Journey
Penny - Well, it began properly for publication when my daughter was a baby because people were being so generous, speaking of generosity, and were giving me lots of books as gifts. And I've just loved that. But some of them I didn't like. Some of the books. I liked the people who gave them, but I didn't like the books. And especially some of the Christian books, I felt like they belittled God, or they made the stories from the Bible just a bit too fanciful, so that you couldn't quite see the truth. And I thought to myself, well, maybe I could do something better. Maybe I could give it a try. And I had been writing off and on ever since I was little, but I never thought I could ever be an author. I never thought I was good enough to do that. So, that was to actually getting the guts to give it a try was my first hurdle. My first books that came out were these. They were very, very simple little books, just teaching God that you know the elephant is big, but God is bigger. Just really solid truths like that. But yeah.
Valerie - I looked through a few of those, and I was like, Oh, these are so sweet. Just that idea that, know, God is bigger than the elephant. It's faster than this. It's, you know, just a simple concept that little kids are just starting to like, ooh, I'm fast. Ooh, I'm getting bigger. And it's like, well, God is even bigger than that. And so I love, love that idea. And I can't wait to look at a few more of those here soon. But did you always want to be an author?
Penny - I think I always liked the idea, but I just, you know, it was impossible. I honestly thought it was an impossible idea. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, like I grew up all over the place because my parents were missionaries. I remember I wrote my very first book. Let me see if I have, I do, have it here. My very first book I wrote when I was in year three. It's called Creepy Crawlies, including the spelling mistake, because I'm still not a very good speller, but
Valerie - It's next level, right?
Penny - I remember we wrote that book and we were told by our English teacher, I guess, well, I was in year three, so I didn't have an English teacher, but you know, we were told by our teacher, you need to do this book and make it the very best you can because we're going to read it to the little kids. And I remember just like, just being full of the responsibility of communicating to an audience. And I loved it. And so I think that was probably my first taste of authorship, that idea of communicating to an audience. And I loved it, but I did, honestly, I didn't think I could do it. No. So I wrote a little, you know, I wrote romantic poetry all through high school, which I've burnt most of that. I think I've burnt all of that. Yeah. And I wrote like short stories and starts of novels, but I just did it because I loved it, not because I thought it would go anywhere. So I'm really quite surprised and very grateful to God that I have been allowed to actually write stories that actually turn into books that I do. Receive occasional emails from around the world, not very often, but occasionally, from people who have read my books, and they've made a big difference. And that's been so, so encouraging.
Valerie - That's been kind of what my husband and I remind, or what my husband reminds me of, in this is like, you know, when sales aren't the best area, and it's like, oh, I have to do more marketing or more of this and that. It was like, just one person. That's all you have to impact. That's all God's asking you to do: just the one person to fall in love with your book and to be moved by it, to know God more. And it's like, okay, right. Yes, that one person, just one.
Penny - And God seems to bring along those one people at just the right time. Just when you're about to go, that's it. What I'm doing isn't making a difference. Some random person will email, and, you know, it's just that one person. Just to remind you. Yeah. Yeah. Keep going.
Valerie - Just to remind you, like little winks from God. Too fun. Well, Penny, what is your favorite book?
Penny Reeve's Favorite Book
Penny - See, that was a hard question. I always find that a hard question because there are so many amazing books, but I did put some thought into it, and I thought, I really love The Hunger Games. Like, I feel a bit silly saying that, but if I think about which book I return to over and over again, I do return to The Hunger Games series a lot. And I'm not so keen on the ballad one, but I did really like Sunrise on the Reaping. And I think what I like about this is the same thing that drives me to write my own stuff, because of the critical appraisal of the world.
around us that these books do. I think that's one of the reasons I love them. Another reason I think I really love them is the way that they address mental health. And I think as somebody who's traveled through my own little journeys with depression over the course of my life,
Valerie - Very true, yes.
Penny - I do love the way that she tackles those subjects. It was really interesting when I was reading this. I was reading that, and then one of the evenings, I was almost near the end, we went and watched the Bonhoeffer movie that came out recently. And it was just so interesting to have the two things side by side, just really thinking about propaganda, messaging, you know, and I think they do motivate me to think about how I live in this world around us. So I think that's why, but I'm still analyzing that. Yeah. A couple of other standouts. I've been enjoying the Beauty Chasers by Timothy Willard. It's a nonfiction one. It's just encouraging us to think about the world around us and beauty, and the impact of that on our faith. So I've been really enjoying that. Sensible Shoes is something I found. I only just
discovered that recently, and I was like, Wow, really enjoyed that one. So can I, I can keep going. So, more to Emma, do you want to hear about my children's favorite children's books? I really like Sad the Dog by Sandy Fussell. This is beautiful. It's about this little dog whose name is Sad. Then he goes and finds some new owners, and he gets a new name. It's so beautiful. It's just so beautiful. And one from your side of the world is Show Way. Have you seen this one? This is beautiful. Heartbreaking but beautiful. This is Jacqueline Woodson and Hudson Talbot. Yeah. So yeah, there are some of my favorites.
Valerie - I have not seen that one. I have to put them on my list. I have not heard those, so, too fun. That's one of the reasons why I ask that question is there are a lot of books that we can, what is it, connect on because they're books that we've both read, or books, we can find new books, and that's always fun to find books that have impacted other people. That's now, Penny. What can we expect next from you?
Future Projects and How to Connect with Penny Reeve
Penny - So I'm always writing. So there's always a lot of projects going on. I'm working on my PhD at the moment, looking at spiritual questions in young adult literature. So I'm doing some short story writing for that, but you probably won't see that for a while. One of the pen names that I write under is Ella Shine. So Ella Shine is my friend, and we write the Pest City books. So we've got, we're actually launching a literature unit for homeschool students that will come out later this year. So that's a bit of fun. And then next year, I have a picture book coming out, looking at the issue of child labour in the cotton industry in modern-day times. So I'm looking forward to that one coming out. It's been a long wait, as it sometimes is in publishing, but that will be coming out next year.
Valerie - This sounds very exciting. All about those questions of examining the world and your place in it. I love that that's the theme that seems to run through all of your stories is just asking those hard questions, for our young kids to be willing to step into those questions and to take action. So that's lots of fun. Where can people find out more about you and your books?
Penny - Yep, so my website is probably the easiest place. So that's www.pennyreeve.com. And on there, you can find information about all the different books I write as Penny Reeve, Penny Jay, and Ella Shine. So there's a lot of information there. And there's also, your listeners are interested, there's a free little mini devotional that I wrote for children called Five Friends of Jesus. So you can have a look at it all there.
Five Friends of Jesus- Mini Devotional Freebie
Valerie - I've gotten to look at that one. I really enjoyed doing that one with my kids. So it's really sweet to look at all those unexpected characters and how they would have seen Jesus. So it's lots of fun. Well, thank you so much for joining me today, Penny.
Penny - Yeah, thanks for having me, Valerie. It's been super fun!
Valerie - Been a pleasure. And thank you for joining Penny and me on this episode of the Bookworthy Podcast. Check the show notes for any books or links that we discussed, and let us know in the comments what your first job was. Be sure to like, subscribe, and leave a review to discover more great books together.
Happy reading.
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