What if your child craved something godly?
"My son connected with this so much."
— Father of a Young Reader
★★★★★
Nobody writes for the kid in the valley.
But we do.
If you have a child between 8 and 12 years old and you want their faith to be strong enough to survive the adversity the world loves to dish out, chances are you've run into a problem.
Picture books of Noah's Ark or David and Goliath were fine when the kids were 6. Not so when they're 10.
Bible study workbooks and devotionals come across as thinly veiled homework, and the kids are back on their phones again.
It is weird how few books honor the sense of wonder and curiosity that tweens still have. Instead of flooding them with stories that capture their imaginations, the publishing industry largely pictures these young people as jumping from books with Sunday School nursery rhymes to devotionals and commentaries about how to talk to your unbelieving football coach about Jesus.
As if wonder has an expiration date. As if young readers are not to be taken seriously until they're old enough to read about theology on one hand, or sex, drugs, and mayhem on the other.
Somewhere between the picture books and the young adult novels, there is a valley. Your child is standing in it right now.
They are old enough to understand complex ideas. Old enough to wrestle with real questions about God, life, identity, and what it means to do the right thing when it costs you something. Old enough to want a story that respects their intelligence.
But the message they keep receiving from the shelves is this: fun stories are for little kids. The serious stuff comes later. In the meantime, here is a devotional or a book where God isn't a factor at all.
Doesn't a 10-year-old deserve a story that grips them, challenges them, and points them toward God at the same time?
Of course they do. And now your child can be a living witness that faith and a great story from their world belong together.
There's a kid from Iroquois your child needs to meet.
His name is Theodore Addison. Everyone calls him Ted.
He is 10 years old, and he is the kind of kid who makes adults nervous. He builds things that shouldn't exist yet. He asks questions nobody else thinks to ask. He figures out solutions before most people have finished understanding the problem.
But Ted has a problem he cannot invent his way out of.
He is being targeted for bullying. Every plan he comes up with to handle it on his own makes things worse, until his go-it-alone solutions accidentally catch the attention of the United States government and land him in the middle of a national security crisis.
What he doesn't know yet is that none of this is an accident.
God has been working in the background the whole time, turning Ted's small acts of courage into something far larger than he ever imagined. And the friends, enemies, and unlikely allies he picks up along the way are exactly who he was always going to need.
Kids who read this book want to meet Ted. Parents who read it finally have a way to show their child what faith in action looks like.
And the conversations it starts between them, about faith, about courage, about what it means to trust God when your own plans fall apart, are the lessons that stick.
This is not for every family.
It might be for yours.
This was built for a specific kind of caregiver.
The parent who wants their child to have a faith they chose, not one they inherited by default and walked away from when they got older.
The grandparent who wants to leave something that outlasts a birthday or Christmas present. Something their grandchild will still be carrying in their heart when they are grown.
The teacher searching for that one story at the right moment that can reach a child when little else could.
The minister whose young people leave the four walls of the church, but choose to remain in the presence of God.
What these caregivers all share in common is this: they refuse to leave the faith formation of their children to chance.
They understand that a story a child loves at 10 can shape who they become at 20. That the questions a kid wrestles with in a novel are the same ones they will wrestle with in real life. And that walking through those questions together — adult and child, side by side — is one of the most powerful things a family can do.
This works best when you are in it with them.
The child who reads this alone gets a great story. The child who reads this with you gets a conversation that reverberates for a lifetime.
If that describes you, keep reading.
Some kids are built for this.
Yours might be one of them.
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The Life Corps is a community of young believers built around The Life and Times of Theodore Addison, an original Christian middle-grade fiction series for kids aged 8 to 12.
Plenty of children will read the books, but the ID cards are only for the kids who are building a relationship with God.
The Life Corps ID Card contains an Oath of Enlistment, a blessing over the child's life, and a set of Ranking Criteria that will grow with them as their faith does.
This is not a trinket. It's a spiritual growth chart.
Walk through it with them. That conversation is the point.
A child who walks through this with you leaves the conversation knowing something most adults spend years trying to find — that God has a specific claim on their specific life.
Your family's privacy matters deeply. This ID card is for your child only.
No personal information will ever be shared, sold, or distributed. We take special care to protect the privacy of every minor in this community.
The kids in the valley found their story.
★★★★★
"Thank you for writing a book that my son connected with so much. He loved reading about Ted's adventures, his inventions, his friends, and his new life."
— Parent of Young Reader
★★★★★
"My favorite chapter is Chapter Six, 'Bad Kid,' when Ted goes to the recycling center."
— Young Reader, Age 10
★★★★★
"My son and I have been reading My New Home together each night, and we have really enjoyed it. It's such a wonderful, relatable story for kids, and it's been so special reading it as a family."
— Father of Young Reader
★★★★★
"If I could talk to Ted, I would ask him to teach me how to make inventions and talk about bullies with him. If I could be in the book, I would be Ted because he has good inventions. One part that made me sad was when Ted got kicked out of school."
— Young Reader
Every valley shall be raised up.
Isaiah 40:4
Theodore is a genius dealing with relentless bullying, so he sneaks out every night to build and test his inventions, hoping to scare off his enemies.
But his go-it-alone plans blow up in his face when he catches the eye of the US government and gets in major trouble.
Little does he know, this is all part of God’s plan, as these stop-gap solutions become necessary tools to prevent a brewing national security crisis.
Theodore must learn to work together with friends and foes alike to protect his new hometown—or doom millions.
When your child finishes this book, they don't just improve their literacy. They begin to see God differently — present in the middle of the mess, not waiting at the end of it.
Walk through it together.
For families who want to go further, the Guideposts companion reflection guide is available separately.
For the adult who wants to make sure the lessons from My New Home stick, this companion book contains the chapter reflection questions, the author's own personal answers to start the conversation, and biblical framing to guide the discussion.
"Your answers matter more than mine. But mine are there to help when you need a place to start."
The child who reads this alone gets a great story. The child who reads this with you gets a conversation that reverberates for a lifetime.
The window doesn't stay open forever.
Your child is standing in the valley right now.
Not because you haven't tried, or because anyone did anything wrong, but because this is a blind spot for the publishing industry. Until now, the story your child needed didn't exist for their age, their faith, and their level of understanding all at once.
It does now.
The Life Corps community is waiting. The books are ready. Your child has been ready for this. Now the series is ready for them.
Your child won't just read these books. They'll grow up alongside Ted — and arrive at the other side of childhood with a faith they chose.
You just found what the publishing industry missed. Now your child doesn't have to wait any longer to be served.
Join the Life Corps by filling out the form below.
Your family's privacy matters deeply. This ID card is for your child only.
No personal information will ever be shared, sold, or distributed. We take special care to protect the privacy of every minor in this community.