I recently read this book to my daughter Kara, and she hung on every word:

Starr Meade. Keeping Holiday. Illustrations by Justin Gerard. Wheaton: Crossway, 2008. 192 pp.

Here’s what Jenni and I wrote about it in 2008 in a Themelios review entitled “Theology for Kids: Recommending Some Recent Books for Younger Children”:

This fanciful allegory is like a combination of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress and C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. The storyline is simple: two cousins go on a trip to find the “real” town of Holiday and its founder. Its main refrain is God-centered: “You don’t find the Founder; he finds you. He’s not just the Founder; he’s the Finder, too.” The enchanting story makes one love and long to meet this Founder. Each chapter illustrates a spiritual truth (e.g., one’s spiritual inability to save oneself, God’s provision, temptation). A few of the characters are rather over-imaginative and unrealistic (e.g., talking mistletoe, poinsettia flowers, and bells).