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    Katie Grace Makes a New Friend
    Katie Grace Makes a New Friend
    Katie Grace Makes a New Friend
    Ebook107 pages1 hour

    Katie Grace Makes a New Friend

    By Julie Merrin

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    About this ebook

    There is a new girl in Katie Grace's first grade class. Maddie, one of Katie Grace's friends, thinks this girl is "weird, definitely weird"...and so is anyone who tries to be friends with her. What makes things harder is that the new girl doesn't seem to want to be friends anyway.

    What is a girl to do? Should Katie Grace go along with Maddie and avoid being called "weird" herself? Or should she try to make friends with the new girl no matter what Maddie says? And why does it take so long to see any change for the better?

    Katie Grace's mother uses some of the parables of Jesus told in a fun, conversational way, to her daughter discover and make good choices.

    Kids will enjoy the fun times Katie Grace has with her friends. They will relate to the struggles she has with peer pressure and with waiting for change to happen. Parents can use this book to help their children discover important lessons about being a good friend, and the need for patience as they wait for good changes to happen.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJulie Merrin
    Release dateMar 5, 2013
    ISBN9781301642151
    Katie Grace Makes a New Friend
    Author

    Julie Merrin

    Hi! I’m Julie Merrin. I grew up in Findlay, Ohio, in a large family. As the oldest of six children in an often loud and chaotic house, I discovered early on that I could escape some of the chaos by losing myself in a book. I did this frequently and with such efficiency that my two youngest brothers could be rolling around on the floor fighting three feet from me...and I would be oblivious. In my imagination, I was probably somewhere on the prairie in the old west or on a rocket to the moon. You can go anywhere in a book. It is not too surprising then, that I had a dream of one day becoming a writer. When I was in about 4th grade, I used to say that when I grew up, I wanted to be a teacher during the school year, a librarian in the summer...and a writer in my spare time. Up until age 49, my only published work was a poem that appeared as an award winner in the October 1974 "Wee Wisdom" children's magazine. The funny thing about that one was that I had forgotten the assignment given by Mrs. Gerber, my 6th grade language arts teacher, to write a poem. As I stood with my classmates outside her door waiting for the previous class to be dismissed, someone asked me what I had written. Frantically, I asked if anyone had a piece of paper I could borrow. Someone gave me a small sheet torn from a 3X5 notepad on which I scribbled eight lines of poetry, breathed a sigh of relief, and turned it in. I didn't find out until I was in 7th grade that my teacher had liked the poem, submitted it, and that it had been published. Over the years, I have written a number of other things including a Christmas play, a children's musical, and a number of short skits. These have all been performed, but not yet officially published. I have three ideas in various stages of development for collections of anecdotes on topics ranging from language bloopers to Merrin family legends. The first would likely appeal to expatriates living around the world. The last, though, is likely to have a fairly limited audience. Currently, I am working on a series of children's books for kids aged 5-9. The "Katie Grace" series follows the adventures, trials, and challenges of a seven-year-old girl. Katie Grace is energetic, enthusiastic, competitive, sometimes selfish, and other times tender-hearted. In the first books of the series, her parents use several of the parables Jesus told to help Katie Grace find solutions to the challenges she faces. Book #1 in this series is available on Smashwords as of early March 2013. As for my personal life, I currently minister with children and teens at a children's home in Southeast Asia. I have lived in this area of the world since 1993, and deeply love the people here. I am a single mom to a beautiful daughter who I adopted from this country. She has been with me since she was six weeks old, with the adoption finally being finished when she was two years old. That could be another story to write, but as it is HER story, I don't think I'll ever publish it as part of a biography. But who knows...a fictionalized version might show up somewhere along the line in that novel I want to write someday.

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      Book preview

      Katie Grace Makes a New Friend - Julie Merrin

      Katie Grace Makes a New Friend

      By Julie Merrin

      Pictures by I Kadek Suraksa

      Copyright 2013 Julie Merrin

      Smashwords Edition

      Discover other titles by Julie Merrin at https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/juliemerrin

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Contents

      Note to Parents

      Who’s the Best?

      A Really Cool School Project

      Seeds to Plant

      Be Careful Where You Plant

      The Parable of the Sower

      Wordy Seeds and Dirty Hearts

      Those Pesky Old Rocks

      Those Prickly Thorns

      The Good Kind of Dirt

      The New Girl

      Weird, Definitely Weird

      Sometimes Loving Is Hard

      The Parable of the Good Samaritan

      So Who is MY Neighbor?

      Lo Siento

      You’re Weird, Too!

      That’s Progress

      Good Day, Bad Day

      Some Things Take Time

      It’s Happening Already

      Nothing To Draw

      Waiting to Grow

      The Parable of the Mustard Seed

      Just Keep Asking

      The Parable of the Bad Judge

      A New Friend

      Friends Again

      Coming Soon: Katie Grace and the Me Firsties

      Connect With Me Online

      Dear Parents,

      Mommy, tell me a parable.

      For several weeks, this was one of my six-year-old daughter’s favorite requests. I am not certain why she was so fascinated with parables. Perhaps she just liked the sound of the word. Maybe she truly had come to love these short stories that Jesus told his followers. Of course, it may simply be that she was just trying to keep me at the dinner table a bit longer as she dallied over her food. No matter what the reason, I am glad for her interest in the stories.

      Jesus used parables to teach important life lessons for a reason. His listeners had an advantage over us in modern times because they all understood first-hand the situations Jesus described. As a society that was highly involved in farming and herding, they knew about sowing and reaping. They were familiar with sheep and shepherds. They only had to look at the fishing boats along the shore and the activity surrounding them to clearly picture what the parable of the net meant.

      We, on the other hand, have to dig a bit deeper. We may not have first-hand experience with some of the things Jesus talked about. Even so, young children and big kids like their parents can learn much by digging in to the parables of Jesus.

      In this book, we meet Katie Grace, a seven-year-old girl with all the challenges faced by normal seven-year-olds. Challenges to love her neighbor. Challenges to forgive those who have wronged her. Challenges to keep a humble spirit and avoid bragging. Challenges to do her best in everything and to use her talents faithfully, no matter how small she may think they are.

      As Katie Grace’s parents walk with their child through these challenges, they share Jesus’s parables in a way that a young child can understand.

      Surrounding each parable are three elements.

      The set-up – This is the everyday situation or problem

      The parable – In this part, I take a bit of artistic license to help kids understand the historical context of the parable. I sometimes give names to the characters to make it easier to identify with them. (i.e. in the parable of the unforgiving servant, I name the two servants Dan and Sam)

      The application – This section, obviously, explores how the parable applies to everyday life.

      I hope you and your young ones will enjoy walking through Katie Grace’s challenges with her. I hope that the parables of Jesus will come alive to them as you explore these stories. I pray that they will come alive in your hearts as well, and bear fruit that will last.

      For His Glory,

      Julie Merrin

      November 1, 2012

      Who’s the Best?

      Katie Grace and her best friend Becca walked together to school. The two girls had been best friends since they were old enough to play with other kids. They were almost like sisters, even though they looked nothing alike. Both girls had dark eyes and dark hair that they wore in braids, but that was all that was the same.

      Katie Grace was tall and strong and sturdy. She chattered almost non-stop, and was the leader in almost everything the two girls did together. Becca only stood as high as Katie Grace’s chin. She was much quieter than her friend, and was usually happy to play whatever Katie Grace suggested.

      They walked across the playground to where their other two best friends, Maddie and Cindy were waiting for them on the swings.

      Hello Maddie! Katie Grace called.

      Hi Cindy! Becca said.

      Hey, it’s Katie Grace and Becca! Maddie shouted.

      C’mon you guys. Let’s swing, said Cindy.

      Maddie was almost as tall as Katie Grace. She had reddish hair that hung down to her shoulders. She had green eyes…and lots of freckles across her nose. Cindy wore glasses that kept slipping down to the end of her nose. She had long light brown hair that she usually wore in a pony tail to keep

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