Middle school has a way of humbling both kids and parents.
I know this not just as an author, but as a mother who’s walked through the messiness firsthand. When my job required our family to move, I watched my children leave behind the familiar—their school, their routines, and most painfully, their friends. Transition was hard. Saying goodbye to people they loved was harder. And starting over as “the new kid” was something neither of them had chosen.
This is why I understand why so many parents search for Christian middle grade books for tweens. Middle school is when faith stops being something kids absorb quietly and starts becoming something they have to live—often without much guidance from the world around them.
As a parent, I watched my kids struggle to fit in at a new school where faith wasn’t talked about, and sometimes didn’t seem to be lived out at all. They still loved God. They still believed. But believing is one thing—knowing how faith fits into lunch tables, locker rooms, and group dynamics is another.
In our house, middle school brought questions we hadn’t anticipated. How do you trust God when you feel invisible? How do you stand firm when fitting in feels easier? How do you stay kind when loneliness starts to creep in?
These questions are at the heart of The Gift Is Me. Simone’s journey mirrors what I saw unfolding in my own children: faith becoming real, personal, and sometimes painful. She believes deeply, but learning how to live that belief publicly is a challenge.
Christian fiction for tweens matters because kids need stories that don’t gloss over the struggle. Middle grade books with Christian values give families a shared language for conversations that might otherwise feel awkward or overwhelming.