Now that your kids have headed back to school, they might prefer being anywhere than a classroom and reading anything but textbooks. As the parent, you know first duties come first! Real heroes need training montages, which usually go slower in real time. Still, fantastical stories can also make your kids into the heroes our divine Hero, Jesus Christ, wants them to become. But where do you find the best books?

At Lorehaven, we’ve spent years reviewing the best Christian-made novels across all genres: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Our creative team explores these stories for God’s glory. We apply these stories’ meanings to the real world ruled by Jesus Christ in hopes of serving Christian fans, families, and kids.

That’s why we’ve created this handy guide to finding the best new books for your kids. Each series is Christian-made. Each book is an excellent and fantastical story, tested by parents and loved by young readers (boys and girls!) ages 8 to 12.

The Terra Prime Adventures series by T. D. Patrick (4 books)

First we launch into South Carolina, home of Lorehaven writer and marketer L. G. (Laura) McCary. Her husband’s a military chaplain, while she’s a full-time mother of four.¹

Two of Laura’s children have just begun to enjoy longer chapter books.

“When you find a good sci-fi series for middle grade, you snatch it up!” Laura says. “Our family discovered The Terra Prime Adventures series through the Lorehaven review of book 1: First Contact. I have one voracious reader and one reluctant reader, and they both devoured the books in a day or two.”

First Contact is book one and tells the story of Zack, a twelve-year-old boy in hypersleep on his way to colonize a new planet. But when he wakes up, he’s the only one out of his pod, and the ship’s computer wants him to confront an intruder all by himself. The book is best for fans of science fiction as well as kids who enjoy short illustrated chapter books. First Contact has only a few scary moments.

“Fortunately, Zack’s already had some training from Dad in confronting scary stuff,” wrote our Lorehaven reviewer. “This well-written chapter book promotes courage and other virtues, making First Contact a great tale for boys.”

Patrick has created two more titles in this series: Trouble in the CTC! and Planetfall. A fourth title, The Caves of Plydor, is set to launch Oct. 15, 2022.

The Incredible Worlds of Wally McDoogle by Bill Myers (27 books)

At Lorehaven headquarters, publisher E. Stephen Burnett says he’s plotting a new scheme. He wants to recover his original collection of Wally McDoogle paperbacks published in the 1990s. They’re staying (temporarily, he hopes) in his mom’s attic.

That series helped Stephen survive adolescence as a rather awkward child.

“I don’t even remember how or when I was given the first book, My Life as a Smashed Burrito (With Extra Hot Sauce),” he says. “But once I bit into this cheesy goodness, I became a forever fan.”

Readers also became fans, buying millions of these 27 volumes. More recently the publisher re-released this entire series with new covers and some story updates.

Wally’s worlds feature the titular self-proclaimed “human disaster area,” age 12, who klutzes and geeks his way through misadventures. Whether he’s checking his ego as a movie extra, escaping jungle crocodiles, or competing with a bully at camp, Wally and his friends undergo genuine wackiness. Each always ends with earnest life lessons—including essential biblical virtues you may not learn in Sunday school.

“Publishing myths often insist that ‘boys don’t read,’” Stephen says. “It’s not true, of course. Certainly not for geeky homeschool boys like myself. But middle-grade boys can be picky, and often they pick absurdity and mild vulgarity. Myers, who also co-created the McGee and Me! series and wrote many more serious evangelical novels, rollicks in the absurdity. But he stops any vulgarity at the hard line of belch jokes. Of course, belch jokes are hilarious, but one must emit them properly. Myers does.”

Listen to Fantastical Truth ep. 27: What Wackiness Awaits in the Incredible Worlds of Wally McDoogle?

Bill Myers shares his incredible worlds of Wally McDoogle, McGee and Me, and many other stories for kids and adults.

The Towers of Light series by Allen Brokken (5 books)

Finally, your kids can find spiritual struggles on the American frontier, thanks to this newer series from homeschool dad and author Allen Brokken. He describes his Towers of Light books as “Little House on the Prairie meets the Wingfeather Saga.”

Here’s how our Lorehaven team reviewed the first two books:

Allen Brokken’s Light of Mine tells the allegorical tale of three children, Ethan, Aiden, and Lauren. Their lives in nineteenth-century rural America get upended when their dad leaves to fight approaching Darkness. Then, when their mother leaves to rescue Dad, the kids must decide whom they can trust, and how they must work together to use the weapons of faith their father left for them. How-to descriptions of building and cooking are interspersed with moral instruction: other characters see and remedy the children’s mistakes, and the story conveys a sound faith lesson.²

In the second book, Still Small Voice . . . things get even messier: the children’s frontiersman uncle arrives to whisk them off to their grandparents’ house in contradiction to God’s will as understood by Ethan. But what’s more important—respecting their elders, or obeying God’s still, small voice? And is there a way to do both?

The world of this tale has the flavor of the old American frontier, and the pace is often sedate, like a pioneer diary. Language is accessible to younger readers. But the narrative’s simplicity conceals a thorny dilemma: how can the children fulfill their divine mission when their guardian will have none of it?³

Find even more fantastical fiction for boys, girls, and beyond

• For older kids and parents: want to join monthly guided Book Quests into the best Christian fantasy? Subscribe to Lorehaven and get exclusive access to the Lorehaven Guild, our secure Christian community hosted on a Discord server.
• In the Lorehaven library, we list many more Christian-made middle grade books.
• Our weekly podcast, Fantastical Truth, helps parents and older students explore fantastical stories for God’s glory, applying their meanings to our real world.
• Friday reviews explore the best Christian-made fantasy our volunteers can find.
• Watch this site for more articles helping Christian fans, families, and students. We strive to help you not only find the best Christian-made fantastical novels for readers of many ages, but also enjoy and discern these stories for Christ’s glory.