Write This: Teach Your Children Well
A Writing Prompt from Andrew Peterson's The Wingfeather Saga
Welcome to the September installment of Write This, where Solum presents a brief reflection and writing prompt for you to engage with in your preferred medium. You can either delve into the prompts on your own, or join our Paid Subscriber Workshops in our Substack chat, where you can submit your piece to receive enriching feedback from fellow peers and members of Solum’s masthead.
Nearly four books down, and I’m right on the cusp of finishing Andrew Peterson’s critically acclaimed The Wingfeather Saga. The final, colossal book got lost in my recent move, and I was happy to unearth it and begin the end of what has been a momentous story. If you haven’t heard of Andrew Peterson, he’s a recording artist, songwriter, producer, founder of
, and award-winning author of the series in discussion. My personal conjecture is that he also doesn’t sleep.Many reviewers have compared Peterson’s adventure-fantasy series to a modern day Chronicles of Narnia, which is undoubtedly a bold statement. But after spending a fair amount of time in these books, I can see what they’re getting at. The Wingfeather Saga seems to scratch the same itch that The Narnia series does in that it provides a compelling, fantastical story that not only thrills the imagination, but provides a particular vision for the good, true, and beautiful. And all of this is accomplished in a format intended for children.
The sheer popularity that surrounds both of these series points to a gaping lack in literature. Children are formed by stories, and they are worthy of reading good ones. It is remarkably rare to find a children’s tale like Peterson’s that thinks highly of the reader, and in doing so offers remarkable writing that speaks to The Good Life. There are many excellent children’s books. And there are many faith-based children’s books. But the intersectionality of the two, the liminal space where they meet, is surprisingly bare.
It’s obvious that Peterson writes with a love for children, and with the thought of his own in mind. He set out to write a story that would endure, giving children a lantern for the arduous journey ahead. As wordsmiths of faith, we have that same opportunity to invite future generations into swirling worlds and tales of shalom. The question at hand is, will we take it?
Write This:
Write a piece in your preferred format intending to nourish the imagination and soul of a child.
Enjoy this prompt on your own, or submit your working piece to our Paid Subscriber Workshop in our Substack chat to be reviewed by peers and a member of Solum’s masthead.