There is pervasive death in this series, and particularly in this latest tale. (Other than, of course, the actual pretending which is my job as a writer of fiction.) The cool thing is I have simply found more and more kids I’m blessed to serve in this way. And, because the first audience was and is my kids in my home, I don’t have to do any pretending. My goal is always to delight and inspire, in love and service to my readers. I’m trying to simply be faithful in this vocation, to be the best storyteller I can be. But they are not an evangelistic tool or an allegory. I am a devout Christian, and, like his tales, these stories will “ring your bells” if you are, too. As a person of faith, why did you decide to weave in custom and tradition as the baseline for morality, versus religious structures? Virtues and morality are intrinsic to plot and character development in the books, and yet there is not an active religious element. You can get angrier and more frustrated about how bad the darkness is, or you can stand up and help spread the light. I think kids today need what we’ve always needed, but I do feel like the offerings in our culture are often predatory and perverse, instead of generous and hospitable, to kids. Lewis described the imagination as “the organ of meaning.” We need good stories because our imagination will feast on the food we give it, and there are so many hungry souls out there starving for Truth, Beauty, and Goodness-starving for meaning. Kids need stories of moral imagination because they form what we love and who we become in a way few other things do.
#GREEN EMBER BOOK 4 FULL#
This is why the Bible is so full of stories. The best stories don’t subtract truth, they add meaning. We don’t understand the world without stories. Why write for children and young adults? Why do they need these modern classics- archetypal stories of good, evil, morality and survival- now more than ever? I’ve been delighted to find so many other families who share my own family’s love for these kinds of stories.
In an age that is often grotesquely inhospitable to children, they feel almost transgressive. Something they thought belonged only to the past is rampaging through their imaginations and it’s exhilarating. But these books have modern pacing and are out “in the wild,” so families are having a kind of Jurassic Park-like experience. A friend described them as holding classic virtues that feel old-fashioned and like museum pieces-trapped in amber-because they are so strongly associated with the past in classic literature. The “Green Ember” stories are called “classic,” and “vintage.” How do you breathe new life into “old” tales and why did this become important to you as a writer? Smith sat down for an interview about his books, his faith, and the importance of storytelling.
Smith’s dystopian world of hero bunnies and their enemies is well worth sinking into this summer. He must crush them each in turn…You are doomed unless you come to our side and drink our cup.” But the bunny King and his followers will not drink, and it is this determination for goodness that ends in an ultimate reward.Īrchetypal and reminiscent, a survival story as ancient as time itself, S.D. Every ruler has obstacles placed by fate and enemies in the path. The dragon king scoffs at this, “For your enemy even? You are so weak that you have pity on this criminal traitor who kills your beloveds?…This is why you cannot overcome. In the latest release in the series, “ Prince Lander and the Dragon War,” it is this goodness, this willingness to forgive and offer mercy to the enemy that provokes the enemy most. The weak and seemingly defenseless bunnies are abundantly complex, characterized by intelligence, wisdom, agility and their communities unite in the defense of a definitive truth a truth worth dying for, even in the face of destruction, betrayal and overwhelming odds. A devout Christian, Smith is unapologetic in his heroes’ morality.
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