This summer I had the supreme pleasure of reading Nancy Nicholson’s Bigger Stories for Little Folks to my two youngest girls, ages 5 & 7. After flipping through the first, more well-known volume of Devotional Stories for Little Folks, I was hesitant, thinking that perhaps the stories would seem a bit involved and preachy to my two precocious gals. I am happy to say that my fears were unfounded. Each evening, after Beth and Mae were cozy in their pajamas and had brushed their teeth, they would bounce into my bed and Beth would hand over the book. They listened with rapt attention to the adventures of little Greg and his family, laughing at the mishaps and sobering at the lessons learned while enjoying an innocence that mirrors their own. The conflicts that arise in these stories are never breath-taking or heart thumping, yet they are real and easily understood. Sweet, but not sappy, like a warm blanket and a cup of tea near a roaring fire, these stories draw children’s hearts close to home, keeping the wolves of the world at bay. There is no need to pit good up against an evil world filled with snares and pit falls that would only serve to frighten and fill a child’s heart with despair. Children instinctively know the good. They cheer when the Peterson children have righted a wrong or made the correct choice. Each tale ends on a happy note, with forgiveness and redemption and a loving embrace. Like our eternal hope of heaven, these stories firmly establish the good as attainable and fill our souls with peace and joy.