Featuring Penny Reeve – Children's and YA Author of Out of the Cages
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Shout Out to Aussie Christian Authors
Featuring Penny Reeve – children’s and YA Author of Out of the Cages
Welcome, Penny!
It is wonderful to feature you here as part of our blog series celebrating Australian Christian authors. As a former literary agent who specialised in children’s books, I find it especially exciting to discuss children’s and YA books with an Aussie Christian author. Thank you for taking the time to share a bit about your writing life and faith journey with us.
Penny Reeve (also writing as Penny Jaye and Ella Shine) is the author of over 25 books for children, including picture books, junior fiction, children’s Bible studies and young adult fiction. She lives in Sydney, Australia and enjoys empowering young people through story to respond to the complex, fascinating and sometimes difficult world we live in.
You can learn more about Penny, or sign up to receive her free children’s devotional, at www.pennyreeve.com
Author Interview
1. How does your Christian faith shape your writing?
What we believe will inevitably shape how we live our lives. As a Christian writer, my worldview as a follower of Jesus Christ inescapably influences what I write and how I approach my work. I love using writing to explore ideas of faith, belief, and spiritual growth, both for myself and for the reader. In non-fiction, I’m often seeking to answer the question of what active faith looks like. In fiction, it’s often the same kinds of themes, but explored through storytelling and setting my characters up to experience what faith in a loving God could look like and how that influences their world.
I’ve recently gone through an interesting year where I’ve had to take a hard look at my values as an ‘author’ in comparison to some of the values the publishing industry holds. It’s meant I’ve had to consider how my faith in God and his goodness changes the decisions I make in regards to marketing, promotion and even which projects I invest my energy in and how. So my faith isn’t just part of the creative writing process, but also a part of who I am as an ‘author’.
2. What’s been one of your biggest challenges as an author—and one joy that’s kept you going?
Marketing has probably been one of the biggest challenges. Not because I don’t like promoting my work – I do. I believe each of my books answers a real need and often fills a gap, so I’m happy to do the work. It’s just figuring out what the best strategies might be in a constantly shifting market is sometimes very discouraging. You can fall into the trap, as an author, of thinking ‘If I only did this… I’d sell loads of books’, and a lot of energy and time can be wasted. The joy that’s kept me going even when this never-ending marketing mystery persists is knowing that my books have made a difference. I don’t get a lot of feedback from readers (it’s one of the downsides of writing for an audience who don’t often leave reviews), but when I do, they are straight from the heart and so very precious.
3. Do you have a favourite Bible verse or spiritual theme that finds its way into your stories?
Not really one verse for all the books, but I have noticed that each different story will often have its own focus verse. For example, Wonderfully Madison got it’s title, main character’s name and theme from Psalm 139: 14 ‘I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made’. Out of the Cages doesn’t mention God at all, but it was Galatians 5:1, ‘It is for freedom that Christ has set us free’, that was the verse carrying the writing of that story.
4. What was your favourite book as a child—and has it shaped how or what you write today?
The books I read as a child that have probably had the most influence on my writing today are the novels by Patricia St John and Hilda Stahl. Both writers wrote about children grappling with ideas of faith in very real ways. Patricia St John tackled difficult topics with stand-alone stories, strong characters and authentic representations of faith. She also wrote about faith in different cultural settings which I could relate to, being a missionary kid growing up in different locations myself. The Hilda Stahl novels offered me Christian peers in a time when I didn’t have many in real life. I think this is why I believe so strongly in kids having access to novels in which characters express and explore what they believe.
5. What encouragement would you offer to aspiring Christian writers here in Australia?
I would encourage them to work hard, write wonderful books and don’t lose heart. The publishing industry can be daunting and discouraging. But the world needs books that shine hope and whisper about the kingdom. Study your craft, become the best writer you can, learn, grow, read, network, and keep bringing your work back to God for his direction.
6. Where can readers find your books and connect with you online?
The best place to go would be my website: www.pennyreeve.com I’ve got loads of information there about my books, plus resources for young readers and children’s writers. I’ve also got a free mini devotional called Five Friends of Jesus which is available from my website. I’m not on social media much these days, a result of the wrestling I’ve been doing over the last year (see my answer to question 2), but I love to connect with readers via my newsletter. You can find a signup form for that here: https://www.pennyreeve.com/newsletter-signup.html
Thank you so much, Penny!
It’s been a delight hearing more of your heart and process. Readers—if you haven’t yet discovered Penny’s books, check out her book: Out of the Cages.
Penny also has a free devotional Five Friends of Jesus: https://giveaway.pennyreeve.
Disclaimer: The thoughts shared in this interview belong to the author and may not reflect the full views of Grace Bell Publishing. We love supporting a wide range of Christian voices and stories, and we trust readers to engage with grace, wisdom, and a heart grounded in Scripture.