Meet the Teacher Inspiring Students Through Literature and Storytelling

The Pastor's Kid is a story close to my heart. Not because I have any idea what it’s like to be a pastor’s kid, but because I’ve been one of the only Christian kids at a public school with a largely secular cohort. Granted, we never had to make any Chapel programs, and my dad wasn’t the minister tasked with enthusing my peers about God. But I have been the Teacher’s Kid, the Principal’s Kid, the Year Coordinator’s Kid…so I felt pretty confident about portraying the angst involved when your personal life and social life collide.

The Pastor's Kid is taught at Landsdale Christian School in Year 9 English as part of the curriculum. We also cover visual texts, autobiographies, Christian raps, documentaries, novels and persuasive speeches.

This book is extra special to me because it’s my only Young Adult novel with a Christian main character. This pivot came with its own risks, but it’s paid off because when the Year 9 students study The Pastor's Kid, they connect with the material so personally. They then save up all their questions about being a pastor’s kid and hurl them at our School Chaplain, Travis, for one of our lessons, which is a highlight of the program.

Mattie and Jay, my two main characters, aren’t anyone I know specifically. Neither are Lexi and Seb, my minor characters. They’re all a mixture of personalities of different people and different situations. They’re like a fruit smoothie from a blender, in that you can taste all the flavours but they’re no longer individual fruits.

I began to get the idea of Mattie’s life in late 2013. I jotted down some initial pages that were stuck in my mind, and brainstormed characters and conversations and plot issues. The most important themes that came to mind weren’t necessarily social issues, but deeply personal ones. Things like challenging our upbringing, our faith, being willing to be broken down in an unfamiliar situation and rebuilt into an improved, stronger version. Meeting people outside our usual culture and comfort zone, trusting that God has it all figured out for our best good. Realising that religious families have issues just like the rest of the world, and being unashamed to admit that just because we are Christians, it doesn’t mean we are immune to teenage issues, parents who argue and struggle with their own doubts, feelings of anxiety and questioning our identity, wanting to try worldly things. I would argue that it is paramount as a young person to experience befriending people with different beliefs to us, working with non-believers on projects and being patient and understanding of where they are in their journey, not expecting conversion upon friendship, not limiting reading and learning to your own denomination and community.

Student Feedback

"In the end, I looked forward to reading the book, to the point where I wanted to stay at school to read it." - Noah

"I have never read a Christian novel, so for my first time, and overall positive experience." - Kaiden

"I think that the characters match teenagers nowadays. This book taught me how important God is in a young person's life, because everyone in the book was going through something and in the end, their problems were solved because God helped them." - Lucas

Why I Write

I write young adult novels because it comes naturally to me. I remember everything about being a teenager, and, really, the teenager in me is still there, not so much lurking or watching from a distance, nor hiding or suppressed. It is in the very core and essence of me, only changed because I had to grow and develop into the adult that everyone has to become. The stepping-stones of life are in our embarrassing moments, the shifts and changes in friendships and relationships, the development of self through pleasant and uncomfortable experiences.

Teenagers are in the midst of learning the biggest lesson of all: life isn’t simple, it isn’t black and white. It’s multiple and varied shades of grey. If you mix these shades of grey you might end up getting close to black or white, but in the end, it’s the darkening of themselves around the edges and the ways in which they bend and twist that will make them more wholesome people; people that others will want to be around and who will contribute greatly to society when given the awesome opportunity.  

I love the unabashed honesty of teenagers, the eyebrow raising mixed with such vulnerability.  They are passionate, opinionated, energetic people, and that is why it was easy to write The Pastor’s Kid. All I had to do was think about what I would have said, or would say, if I was still their age. Teenagers are not only funny, self-deprecating, brave, and resilient, they are also very fascinating people to write about. It is my hope that teenagers who read this novel discover themselves, and just how interesting they really are.

Most of all, I want to show teenagers who have tried to fit in in both worlds that they don’t actually have to. I hope the story of two completely different upbringings helps to bridge the gap of perceived normality. Everyone is normal, because we all have one God. And He doesn’t make mistakes.

Mrs Danielle Weiler English Teacher admin@lcs.wa.edu.au