How to Help Kids Take Jesus to School with April Graney

Now, um, when did your writing journey begin, April?

Okay.

So I ...

My mom passed down to me, I don't know, years ago, 10, 15 years ago, my baby book and all the things that she had saved.

And I found in there something that I, I must have written it around first grade, and it was a, it was a picture book.

It was, "God made flowers.

God made trees.

God made you, and God made me," you know, and I had illustrated it.

And I, I don't remember creating that book, um, but I was [laughs] so excited to find it.

So I was like, "That seed was planted." Like, the Lord planted that seed in my heart as a child to write, and I always did want to be an author.

Like, I thought, "Oh, that'd be so cool to go in a bookstore and see my name on a book and have a book published," and I always thought it would be a book for moms, like a parenting book or something.

You know, we have five kids, and so I thought, "Oh, I'll write something for moms." And then the Lord gave me this, you know, picture book story, and it was like, "I love this." I was just ...

The Lord just surprised me with that, that, um, being my first book, and I'm just so thankful, and I don't know if I'll ever transition to any other type of writing because I love, love picture books so, so much.

There is a joy and a love that comes with picture books, whether you write them or read them.

There's something that kinda taps into that inner child and speaks to your heart a little bit.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Stronger for s- uh, for some reason.

I always say that you're never too old for a picture book, and because it just ...

They do such a great job of communicating big truths in really small ways, and [laughs] edible ways.

Right.

And, and that's how ...

You know, it's great that as a parent I got to read my kids stories, story after story, picture book after picture book, and I love, as an adult ...

Like, that's probably my love for picture books grew even stronger, you know, when I became a mom and I was reading these stories and I would think, "Oh, I wish I had [laughs] written that.

It's so good." [laughs]