What would YOU do if your father, standing in the front hall next to the grandfather clock, suddenly vanishes? Your buddy's mom helps you file a police report—but everyone is too puzzled to be helpful. Then you take a walk in your down-and-out neighborhood and find a clock shop where there had only been an empty building the day before. You walk in, and...

Phyllis Wheeler set a goal at age 13 to write a children’s book, a journey with lots of detours that have taken many years. She’s written for daily newspapers, worked on airplanes as a mechanical engineer, and raised four children including triplet boys, doing some homeschooling along the way, writing and selling the first computer programming curriculum for homeschoolers.

She has lived in various places, including as a child in pre-Civil-Rights Mississippi. But for most of her adult life, she has called St. Louis home. Phyllis Wheeler tells stories that encourage us to step outside our comfort zones. She’s done it—she and her husband spent twenty years raising their family in a black neighborhood in segregated St. Louis.

She’s been a journalist, an engineer, and a homeschooling mom. Now she’s thrilled to be following her dream of authoring books for young people.

Homeschoolers will be interested in her Youtube channel, Bringing Up Booklovers which features interviews with authors of middle-grade books, and reviews of books for homeschoolers.

Learn more about her books and get a free short story when you sign up for her occasional newsletter at PhyllisWheeler.com

Please share StoryJumpers with a friend if you enjoyed this episode. StoryJumpers is still growing, and your positive review and 5-star rating would help.

The Bridge Podcast Network is made possible by generous support from The Boardwalk Plaza Hotel and Victoria’s Restaurant on the boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware - Open 7 days a week, year-round - Learn more at https://boardwalkplaza.com

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The Dead Sea Squirrels tells the story of Merle and Pearl, two 1st Century squirrels from Israel who’ve been preserved in sea salt in a cave alongside the Dead Sea. When 10-year-old Michael discovers them 2000 years later and sneaks them home in his backpack, hijinks ensue after the salty couple reanimate and take their new friend on adventures full of action, humor, music, and character-building lessons.

Enjoy this reading of Squirreled Away – part of The Dead Sea Squirrels series by Mike Narwoki, co-creator of VeggieTales and voice of Larry the Cucumber!

Mike Nawrocki is the co-creator of VeggieTales and the voice of the beloved Larry The Cucumber. He has been making entertaining and wholesome content for kids since 1993. Mike created, wrote and directed most of the extremely popular “Silly Songs with Larry” segments, and lent his screenwriting and directing talents to VeggieTales episodes as well as their movies Jonah and The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything.

Mike also developed and wrote for 3-2-1 Penguins! and authored a number of VeggieTales Books and CD projects. Mike serves as Assistant Professor of Film and Animation at Lipscomb University and co-hosts the weekly podcast, “The Bible for Kids.”

Learn more about his book and animated series projects at DeadSeaSquirrels.com

You can find The Dead Sea Squirrels series of books on his website or at Amazon.com

Please share StoryJumpers with a friend if you enjoyed this episode. StoryJumpers is still growing, and your positive review and 5-star rating would help.

The Bridge Podcast Network is made possible by generous support from The Boardwalk Plaza Hotel and Victoria’s Restaurant on the boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware - Open 7 days a week, year-round - Learn more at https://boardwalkplaza.com

Feedback, or Show Ideas? Send an email to podcast@wearethebridge.org

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School can cause kids to feel nervous and stressed out, not just about schoolwork, but about friendships. Feeling left out of conversations, feeling lonely, hearing hurtful words, and unsure how to break out of the cycle of friendship struggles.

In their devotional, Let’s Be Friends: A Tween Devotional on Finding and Keeping Strong Friendships (Harvest House, October 2023), mother-daughter authors Blythe Daniel and Calyn Daniel, want to give girls tools. This interactive book helps girls know how to find true friends, how to leave friendships respectfully, and what friendship with God looks like.

"Sometimes we need a little time to see if the people around us are friends for us or may be friends for someone else. But sometimes the people we don’t think will be a good friend can turn out to be a best friend if we just give them a chance to share who they are," says Calyn.

It’s hard for girls to know what to say when they face certain friends. Remaining respectful, standing up for themselves, leaving an unhealthy friend group, and making new friends when shy or unsure of yourself are areas addressed.

Let’s Be Friends contains 30 devotions with journaling space for the reader to share her responses, check off what’s most important to her, a prayer to pray and words to speak over herself.

Topics include fitting in, rejection, what friends show you about yourself, body confidence, when to walk away, taking your pain to God, thinking on God’s word, and pressing on when life is hard.

Calyn enjoys spending time with her friends and family, including older sister, Maris, and her twin brother, William. Calyn is a competitive gymnast, an oboist, and likes to cook. She has included some of her favorite recipes and activities to do with friends in her book. Calyn believes teen girls need to know who they are in Christ, how to navigate friend groups and how to not lose sight of who God has made them to be.

Calyn Daniel and her mother Blythe Daniel want to help teen and tween girls find their voice in conversations with friends and develop friendships with others and with God. They have co-authored Let’s Be Friends: A Tween Devotional on Finding and Keeping Strong Friendships.

Learn more about the book at https://connectingheartsandconversations.com

Please share StoryJumpers with a friend if you enjoyed this episode. StoryJumpers is still growing, and your positive review and 5-star rating would help.

The Bridge Podcast Network is made possible by generous support from The Boardwalk Plaza Hotel and Victoria’s Restaurant on the boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware - Open 7 days a week, year-round - Learn more at https://boardwalkplaza.com

Feedback, or Show Ideas? Send an email to podcast@wearethebridge.org

Download The Bridge Mobile App to get the latest podcast episodes as soon as they are published!