Why write

Did God make those Bananas? has probably been about ten years in the writing. At first I wanted to record, for my own children, some of the faith-building activities we had enjoyed when they were young. As I started writing I realised there were so many things I wanted to pass on to the next generation of parents – lessons we had learned, creative ideas, ways of enjoying the Bible, and fostering compassion in children.

The book really started to take shape about two years ago. Around that time I entered the Sudoku competition in a national newspaper. It was only the second time I had entered, but I was feeling rather pleased with myself for solving the puzzle. To my utter amazement I had a phone call the following day to say I had won a laptop! This has been a tremendous encouragement, and proved so useful for my writing. Sometimes I have felt that the idea of writing a whole book was an impossible dream and the idea went on the 'back burner'. Before long though I would find myself in conversation with the parent of a young child and, as we started talking, my enthusiasm for the book would return. I realised God was not going to let me put my pen, or indeed my laptop, down!


People have asked me where the book title came from. Many years ago my friend Wendy was shopping with her young son in the supermarket. He asked her 'Did God make that apple?' she replied that He certainly did. 'Well, did He make that apple, and that one and that one too?' pointing to each one in turn. She smiled as the truth was dawning on him that God did indeed make EVERYTHING.

I changed his apples into bananas, as I thought it would be more memorable as a title, but thanks for the inspiration, David!

I am so very grateful to Lois and Nathan not just for giving me permission to write about their childhood days, but for positively encouraging me to tell our story as a family.