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we delve into the latest news about publishing industry with interesting insight. our interviews with publishing industry experts will also give you updates on current nonfiction authors books. the latest book reviews. and we'll talk about the current nonfiction books featured on c-span tv. kirk cameron you've spent the past couple of years books for children, but your latest book, born to be brave, is at adults. why the change in audience? oh, well, because i like adults to i am one. i'm a parent. i'm a grandparent. and what i've found is there are a lot of people who living here

in america that are feeling by things that they see happening in the world recognizing that their children are going to have a rough go of things if if good well intentioned parents and grandparents don't lean in, find some courage and begin to to create the kind of world that want for their children and grandchildren and so my book is called born to be brave. i think those who have a heart full of faith and a love for their country and a love for their children are the ones who are positioned, do the most good, and we need to have a sense of courage to come up against some of the forces and the obstacles, the challenges that have got a lot of people feeling really discouraged. that's why it's called brave how to be a part of america's spirit will come back and i want to focus on second part of that title. what do you mean by? the term america's spiritual comeback is that.

yeah so? a couple of words that we could put in place of that be revival would be great awakenings. we've several of them in our country before and nations have experienced revivals of true principles, of first principles. some my most inspiring heroes are those who came across the ocean on the mayflower. our forefathers and foremothers. the pilgrims. and they left for us their blueprint, their matrix for liberty, so that if we ever lost our way, we could our way back to the secrets that made america such a great nation for the sake of continued generations. blessing and protection and what many of us want to is a return to those first principles of loving god with all of our heart. recognize that capitalism without compassion is

detrimental, but that a constitution national republic that is built on heavenly principles like loving god with all your heart and loving your neighbor as yourself the application of the bible to to the family to the community, to your church life, and to your civil government. is the recipe for human flourishing every and people need to to rediscover principles and then to deploy them locally and then across the nation. so how does a parent or start what you say, start locally? where do you want them to go? how do you go doing this? what do you tell them in your book? yes. so in my book, i've i've with this idea that if we turn on the news and we don't like what we're we're looking at the the the macro problem and what i've discovered over the last couple of decades of being a dad and raising six kids and grandparent

being married for 35 years and seeing the world changes that all real change begins with heart transformation. so we got to start local like really local, like in own heart and then can move out as i've reformed myself to then begin to have a nice my home and i begin to speak with a bold, courageous, faithful, kind, gentle, encouraging words to my spouse and my children. and then as we can come together, as community in our churches and in our neighborhoods and begin to heaven ize the place we live, and that can continue like like growing concentric circles to move across the land from my house all the way up to the white house. and i think that it is the strategy that we have to follow if we want to see lasting change. and that is strategy that i lay out in my book born to be brave.

you use the term have a nice there. what does that mean and is it a strictly chris john meaning have a nice. well i certainly mean it that way because i do i am a christian and i, i started out as an atheist. it had a massive worldview shift. and then the way that i see everything begins to, to be colored that way with to wanting god to be honored by the things that i do and wanting people to flourish around me, by treating them the way that i would like to be treated. so i think when people think, you know, if i were to ask somebody, what's a problem you would like to solve? and some people may say the human problem, some people may say the corruption in politics, some people may say or or slavery that still exists in. the world today, the economic problems, health problems. i think what they're really saying is that things broken

and, we want them to be made whole again. we want things to be right. and i think that's what we think of when we think of heaven. and so maybe the words of jesus god may or may may your kingdom come in your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. we would like for earth to reflect little bit more of heaven and think that we can do that when we start locally in our heart, we begin to reform our our home life and we, our children, a strong foundation upon which they can build for the next 50 years. and if we do that collectively i that we can begin to see bright future ahead of us for folks who know you from your tv work, when did you become a christian? when did this massive worldview shift happen? yeah, when i was about 17 years old. so first, let me say there was a bunch of worldview shifts. i mean, i grew up as a little kid wanting to be a doctor.

i loved math and science. i wanted to be like ben carson. i really wanted to be a surgeon. and when i was about nine years old, my mom took me a talent agent. she signed me up, sent me on auditions, and all of a sudden one thing leads to another and i'm doing mcdonald's commercials. and then i'm mike seaver on growing pains. that lasted for quite a while. through my college years, i ended up getting to my on screen girlfriend and i. i i lost my my belief in atheism, if i could phrase it that way. and today i'm recovering from atheism as i'm healing through learning to know and love god with all of my heart. so those worldview shifts from my career to my philosophical. religious worldview has, i think, filled me with so much gratitude and i want to live the rest of my life in a way that keeping evil in check and

amplifying and magnifying the good. it's still married to your onscreen girlfriend, chelsea cameron, six children and a recent grandchild what books are you playing to read to that newborn grandchild? wow wow. we love reading books. got a whole library of books that are at our house i remember as a little kid reading all those fun books like james and the giant peach and the mouse and the motorcycle and stuart little. and i loved all those in school, but so many of these books published by so many publishers, scholastic and others, are are they? they've turned a corner and they're they're advancing an agenda that was unrecognizable to many of us parents and grandparents today. and so the books that i want to read my kids are books that are going to teach them what what i know as the fruit of the spirit, love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control all.

i want my kids to be reading stories by books that i and others have written that teaches them that humility is the great virtue, not pride. and i don't want my children and grandchildren to come home full of pride and be prideful husbands and prideful wives and mothers and fathers. i want them to be humble, not looking, be served, but to serve others. and i want to write books all about that. i want to make television shows about that for kids. in fact we've got a new one coming out, which is the day version of mister rogers. it's called adventures with iggy and mister kirk with a sesame street puppet. and we're teaching children all about important topics that if we don't teach our children their screens and tablets, will and and can't be complainers if if we outsource our parenting to big corporations or public

schools or anything, we've got to stay in the in the leadership with our children. if we care about their little hearts and minds. how many children's books have you written? i've written three children's books. one is called as you grow, teaching those virtues that i talked about. another one is pride comes before the fall, which i a me extolling the virtues of humility rather than pride, fullne. and then thirdly, one is called the fox, the fair and the invention. and that's all about learning to love your enemies. and all three of these books with brave books, correct? yeah, that's right. what is brave books. well, brave is a little publishing company with a big mission and a big heart. they write and distribute books to families with pro-gun, pro-american and they have 3 to 40 different authors working with them and illustrators from

over to write books, hopefully will become staples in parents toolboxes to help them teach their kids values that will lead to their blessing and their protection for generations. so i love all of their books and you can check them out at brave books. ecom, they have a book of the month club and they also have a television show that we're working on coming out this fall. you mentioned scholastic would scholastic any of the books of your books published by brave books? i sure hope so. i sure hope. i mean, they're committed to diversity, equity and so i would hope that that some of the books i'm writing and reading our kids would be available through book fairs and, through their catalogs. scholastic preparing have some 90,000 book fairs during this back to school season. and what do you think of that many book fairs in that many

schools scholastic being the juggernaut that it is in children's book sales in the previous quarter close to a quarter billion dollars. wow yeah it's i mean certainly they've been around i my understanding is over a hundred years. i remember them certainly as a kid and they they are the source for children's storybooks and text books and distributing them as well as publishing them and one of the things that i've been excited are those who are offering books outside of this giant channel that is going to be highlighting that many and grandparents want to get back to one of those book publishing companies is brave books and. one of the school books, they're organizations is called sky tree book fairs. and what they're doing is is trying to offer.

wholesome american constitute and biblical values in that are exciting for kids that parents can trust as a substrate to for scholars tastic book fairs in in communities and schools that are not happy with scholastic and i think that's great competition and is always a good thing variety is a good thing and i'm really thankful for psychiatry and for brave. how do you do that in as you grow one of your three books that that you publish with three books? what's the plot? what will parents and kids find if pick it up? well, the plot is about a little that is growing and eventually becomes something much bigger than it was as as little acorn it's a giant tree. and it's providing food and providing shelter and all the animals who live in the forest. and so this is a book that

teaches children about community. it teaches about compassion. it teaches them to always look to the one who loves them best, which is the one who made them god. it's teaching children about coming together to solve problems and to be thankful for little things and be excited to be part of something greater than yourself. all this is packed into this little book with beautiful illustrations and even questions and games and challenges. at the back of the book that promotes family discussion time around the dinner with your kids. so that's every brave book. and i've written three of them and they are part of a really exciting library. which of the three sold the best so far? i think the first one as you ow i that's the one that really made the news when. i wanted to read this sweet little book in, a public library like so many other groups, are reading their books in public

libraries. believe it or not, i was denied over 50 libraries. public libraries had previously held drag queen story hours for children, and they denied me coming into the public library, even though the parents wanted me there on the grounds that my didn't align with their values and that nobody be interested. and so they didn't make space for me to. be able to read my children's book and a public story our well that hit the news that ended up causing them to reverse course. they sent out an invitation and when i showed up we had over 3000 parents and grandparents who came to downtown indianapolis public library, the largest event in the history of their of their existence. and this sent a message to me that wow there's a lot of parents who have a have hunger for these kinds of books and this is what you eventually called the see you at library book tour. that's right see you at the library was our take on a movement called see you the pole

i if you remember particularly in the nineties, there was a movement of parents and community who would gather at their children's public school flagpole for the purpose of praying for children's protection and to thank them for the teachers and ask for god's blessing, their education. this is a wonderful thing. and we said let's let's all meet at our public libraries and let's sing and let's pray and let's take it upon ourselves to read, book of virtue and character to children that will promote and build the kinds of worlds that we want for them as we nourish their little and minds. and we had over 35,000 people attend this one day event this last summer and it was called see you at library over 350 public libraries participated simultaneously across 50 states and it was a beautiful thing. what's the process for holding a story hour or a book reading at library you've been through this is it the same all public

libraries. well what's really cool about it is that these are story hours led at public libraries organized others not by me or any organization. it's organized local parents and grandparents. so anybody can do it. and you can read any book that you want. now, the the sort of blueprint or recipe, if you will, and support can be found at brave books. so that's the company that i've been publishing with and they will send you a toolkit with books read and american flags and promotional fliers that you can hang up at the library, your kids school or whatever is, and give you tips and, advice on how to be a part of this and. then you can also see a map of all the other libraries so that if you don't want to host one of these story hours, you could just to one in your local area hosted by else, or you could send books and supplies to somebody who is hosting the story hour. so braid books dot com has the info about see you the library

but when you were kept from reading at a library you said it happened. how many times did it happen to you? oh, wolf, 50 libraries denied us and we wrote letters to three of them and. they were the ones that we actually we formally pushed back with. and all three of them reversed course. and we went to libraries. when you formally push back, what was the just justification? justification for them saying no and and what did you push back with? well, i on the news and i talked to some of my friends on mainstream channels and other independent news channels and basically, hey, this is this is a this is a violation of the constitution to have a viewpoint discrimination based on somebody's moral values or their spiritual. i mean, we have the first amendment, you know, have we have we have freedom of speech. we have freedom of religion. and so so when i pointed that out and put them on blast, they

basically acquiesced and said, okay, yeah you're right, we can't stop. but they said that the reason that they didn't think i should come was because, quote, our values don't align with. so they're speaking on behalf of their community, which clearly they were out of touch because when i showed up in that community, there wer people inside of the library down the escalator and out the door, across the sidewalk into the parking lot. so many people that we exceeding fire code capacities inside the library. and we had to like transition people to other places. some of them said that they were looking for authors of color and i didn't fit the type. others said that they an inclusive community and they didn't want me there i'm sure how that's inclusive it made me feel excluded but when went we reurrounded by people who were saying thank for coming. we feel overlooked, silenced and marginalized and the fact that you're bryant bringing attention to books that we love is really a good thing and it's in our public library.

and so we want access also when this was in 2023, there is a column in lit hub, janet manley was was the author. the headline was the kirk cameron drag queen story cage match is officially on and she writes in that piece, let's stop the fight a minute. why are we doing this? how is it that the children's front list, the gettysburg of the culture war, how would you respond to that question? well, first of all, just the visual of me in a cage match with a drag queen is is a little disturbing, but, listen, this is the world we live where children are targets and anyone who is serious about molding the future or about creating culture for the next generation knows that you've got to play the long game.

you've got to make incremental over time. and the easiest people to get onto your side are those who are the most vulnerable, those who have minds that are malleable and chilled erin, are those people. and so if if you really want to secure a good, strong future moms and dads have to take seriously the sacred call parenting to raise their children, to educate and nourish their minds, but we outsource parenting and. we allow others with maybe not good motives to indoctrinate children and to have those years and and hours of the day to teach them things they're going to capture the future and build world for our children. so children is where it's and children are important. children is the is the future of the nation.

all the potential resides within them. and so drag queens not you know confined to bars and adult venues they're now in your preschool they're now in your public libraries reading to three year olds and that's a that's a very thing i believe that god entrusted children to parents not to public libraries public schools or even to churches and that's because there's something in a parent that knows these little hearts and. minds are tender and we need to give all that we've got to them to do that, to lead them in the way that they should go and just following up on that, you say or even to churches, why did you add or even to churches? well, i think that there an assumption with certain people,

particularly people like me, people of faith that. well well, churches aren't going to do bad things to my kids. well, it it doesn't necessarily mean that that i guess what i'm trying to say is that outsourcing, parental response abilities to anyone, whether it's civil government or church or daycare or whatever. i get that we to be supported. we need help there's single parents. there are, all sorts of situations and i depend on my my community to help me raise kids but if i outsource the leadership role even to something as virtuous as what a church ought to be, i think it's a grave mistake because gave children to parents so let's lean into our role not other people to do our job for us and then allow churches, civil governments, public libraries and other to play their supportive as parents do the heavy lifting this fall, are you going to be appearing at more

libraries? yeah. well, i'm not sure i'm going to be appearing at public because we we just culminated a year of that with see you at the library and now i'm really leaning into this new children's television show that's going to be coming out everywhere called adventures with iggy and mr. kirk. and they're going that that show is going to be animated. all of the children's books that brave books has written so that children can learn them on their screens and the values that they teach. and the newest book is born be brave how to be part of america's spiritual comeback. the author is kirk cameron. we appreciate time on booktv. oh, man, thank you so much. great to talk with you. god bless you. well, thanks for joining us on about books program and podcast produced by. c-span's booktv booktv will continue to bring you publishing news and, author programs and a reminder that you can get this podcast on span n app. and you can also watch anytime

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