Author April Graney and illustrator Alida Massari have created a story of hope and joy in The Marvelous Mud House (B&H Kids). Ben and his American family learn a valuable lesson when they travel to Kenya and visit the mud house that George and Mama George call home. In this interview, the author shares the inspiration for the book, what she hopes children learn from the story, and the ways in which the people of Kenya are rich…
What inspired you to write The Marvelous Mud House?
Two events inspired me. The first was while we were sitting in traffic in Nairobi, Kenya. While my husband was negotiating to buy a souvenir though the left window of the bus we were riding in, I looked out the right side window and there, in the median right the middle of traffic, a pile of young teenage boys were just sitting stone-faced and sniffing spray paint. It broke my heart. I couldn’t believe they were there for all of us to see just sitting in the median with all of the traffic passing by and no one doing anything about it. I felt helpless. I could do nothing. Our bus moved on from that scene, but the heartbreak of it stuck in my mind forever.
The second was the night I heard of Mama George’s reaction to receiving our children’s gift. After returning from Kenya, our children decided to sponsor a child to go to high school in Kenya. We prayed about who of the many children and families we met that we could help. We decided to send it to Mama George for her son, George. Then we received the message back that when she heard the news, she
cried and jumped up and down for joy. She had been telling her son George to keep working hard and that God would provide for them. I imagined her running back those two miles through the mountains to find George and tell him of God’s answer, and I couldn’t sleep that night until I wrote the first draft of the story down.
What do you hope children learn from the story?
I hope that children come away from the story realizing that they are not too small to start changing the world. When we realize that Jesus is everything we need, that everything good comes from His hand, that true fullness, contentment, and joy come from a relationship with Him, then we are free to share that joy with others.
I don’t want parents and children to just read The Marvelous Mud House and think it’s a great story. I want it to inspire them to action. I want them to open up a lemonade stand and give their profits to the local homeless shelter. I want them to get on Compassion’s website with their parents and choose to sponsor a child. I want them to be content with what they have and find joy in helping others. I want them to be inspired to change the world, one child at a time.
In your book, Mama George talks about being rich, but not in the way Westerners might think. In what way(s) do you feel that the people of Kenya are rich?
I remember my first morning in the mountains of Kenya, I woke up before anyone else in the house as the sun was rising. Hearing music from outside, I went out and sat on the back porch. It was Sunday morning, and I sat there for a good hour listening to the most joyful and loud children’s singing drifting toward me from somewhere in the village. When we arrived at church later that morning, the service was filled with dancing and loud singing. Someone would stand up at the back of the room, start clapping and singing their song while making their way to the front, as others joined them in song. It was spontaneous, heartfelt worship.
The believers in Kenya are filled with a rich and abundant joy that they freely express in worship. They are rich in faith when circumstances are difficult. Even when they are struggling with drought and crops are failing, they continue to say how much they love God and trust that the Giver of rain will provide for them. They are rich in a way that those of us who trust in our riches to provide for us often are not. Their rich joy comes from relationships with God and others, not from their possessions.
How can this book spark conversations with children about our perspective on possessions, the way that others live, and blessing other people?
In the story, the Smith family has been overrun by their possessions, causing a lot of discord and discontentment in their home. In contrast, we see George and his mother in a beautiful lush setting where they work together in harmony. In the story, the Smith family gets to experience this beautiful place where possessions are few, but joy and peace abound. It changes their perspective on what is important in life. They come home more content and loving to each other, and willing to work hard together to help George. I think as kids hear this story, they hopefully will understand that true joy and contentment comes not from the things we have but the relationships we pursue, and ultimately from our relationship with God.
How can parents help their kids understand and appreciate people that live differently than they do?
The Marvelous Mud House isn’t just a story about helping the poor. It’s about what we can learn from those living in poverty. God has chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith, and this is exactly what we witnessed in Mama George’s life and the other Kenyan believers around us. I realize that not everyone can take their family on a cross-cultural mission trip, but there are opportunities right here where we live to get to know our neighbors who live differently than we do. We can serve in a soup kitchen or homeless shelter, visit a nursing home, or volunteer in a children’s program on another side of town. And we shouldn’t go as the saviors trying to fix everything but as learners. Get to know the people. Develop relationships with them and listen to their stories.