“The sound of her brother’s scream echoed on and on in her head as though it would never end. “Let me go!” she demanded stupidly in English. The African boy dug his nails into Keri’s arm and brought the knife closer to her face.”
A dramatic adventure set during Mozambique’s civil war, The Wooden Ox follows young TCK Keri as the war becomes more and more real to her and her missionary family. Surrounded by fear and loss, Keri begins to question if she can trust anyone to protect her, even her own father or her God. Many of the events of this story are actually based on the author’s real childhood experiences from when she lived in Mozambique during civil war in the 1980s.
Reading level: 10-13 years
In this sequel to Homesick, Jean tells of her return to China, 55 years after leaving. Feeling as if she had truly come home, she visits her old house, church and school, speaks Chinese again, and introduces her husband, Michael, to the country she had loved as a child. She also finds she needs to adjust to the changes that decades of communist rule brought to her beloved China. In spite of the changes in her hometown of Wuhan, Jean is given a precious gift when she is made an honorary citizen of her childhood hometown.
Reading level: age 8-12 years
Jean Fritz draws readers into the stories of her childhood in China in the chaotic 1920s. She tells stories of the bond with her nurse Nai-Nai , her mother’s grief, and her longing for a homeland in the USA that she hasn’t actually ever seen. This recounting of 2 years of her childhood may not seem enough so there is also a sequel too– China homecoming. And though this is written as junior fiction, it will appeal to adults too.
Reading level: age 8-12 years
“My second life began when I was kidnapped by two complete strangers. My mother, who assisted in the kidnapping, said I was exaggerating.”
Dinnie is used to moving around the USA with her parents since her dad is always chasing after new “opportunities.” But this time she’s been taken out of the country by her aunt and uncle and she had no say in her future. Dinnie ends up in an international school in Lugano, Switzerland where everything is new and different and people speak Italian! Will she adapt to a new home and new friends with totally different beliefs and cultures or close herself off to protect herself and just survive?
Reading level: age 8-12 years
Eleven year old Nick and his family move to England for two years because of his father’s business. Nick finds everything unfamiliar and wants to return home to Ohio, but he makes an agreement with his father to give it four months. While his older brother attends an International school, Nick and his younger brother attend typical British schools. There Nick struggles with all the new things he encounters, but he also makes friends, gets involved in new activities, and gets a new pet to keep in his closet.
Reading level: age 8-13 years
Dean, and his friends, Matt, Dave and Jon, live on the same mission station. Together the four boys, who call themselves the Rugendo Rhinos, spend their afternoons and weekends exploring in the bush. When they stumble across two Kenyan boys, one dead and one very sick, they find themselves involved in a dangerous dispute. The father of the dead boy, certain his son died from a witch doctor’s curse, seeks a similar revenge. The boys, their families, and the African believers face the reality of spiritual forces, yet seek to distinguish what events are naturally v.s. supernaturally caused. The boys’ normal (but fun) activities at school balance the intensity of the spiritual warfare in the story. Still, this book might be too intense for younger kids.
The “Rugendo Rhino Tales” feature fourth-sixth grade boys, and are written for late elementary/ middle school boys. The original books are out of print (though still available on Amazon), but they were re-issued as Kindle books (with a few new additions to the series). In the Kindle series, Matt (a western MK in the original books) is replaced by Mato, a Kenyan boy, who also plays a more central role.
