Carroll area women pen children's prayer book

By KATIE BORKOWSKI
Special to Lumen Media
 
When Erin-Jane Stevens and Kayla Venner were teaching together at Kuemper Catholic School in Carroll, they had the idea to write a prayer book for ages five to nine.
Their idea is now a reality in the form of Growing in Grace: A Children's Prayer Book. The back cover describes the book as one that "beautifully portrays virtues through relatable childhood events. It intertwines everyday experiences like friendship, kindness and curiosity with heartfelt prayers, nurturing a child's spiritual growth with each turn of the page."

“We were very intentional on the language we used in the prayers,” said Venner. “It’s directed towards kids, so they have to be able to understand. Prayer is basic.”

At the beginning of the book, the authors have written a note to parents as well as an explanation of the setup of the book.
The authors with Growing in Grace“We have written prayers for you to share with your children, but these prayers are for anyone,” the note read. “This book will align most with people practicing Catholicism.”The authors reminded parents, “Always remember, your children do not need perfect parents. If you were perfect, they would not need our Savior.”

About the authors
Venner grew up in Carroll County and is a 2006 graduate of Kuemper Catholic High School. She graduated from Buena Vista University in Storm Lake with a degree in education. Venner taught for 14 years at Kuemper and is now a stay-at-home mom.

She and her husband Scott have four children. They are members of Good Shepherd Parish and attend Mass at St. John Church in Arcadia.

Stevens grew up in Rockford, Illinois She graduated from Briar Cliff University with a bachelor's degree in education and has her master's degree in professional counseling from Buena Vista University. 

She and her husband, Kyle (Kuemper class of 2006), have three children and one on the way. Stevens taught for two years at Kuemper and is now a stay-at-home mom who homeschools her children. They are members of Carroll St. John Paul II Parish.

Idea to fruition
Stevens sent Venner a text message while they were teaching at Kuemper about her idea to write a prayer book. At the time, Stevens was teaching seventh grade English language arts and Venner was teaching seventh and eighth grade theology.

"It had been on my mind for a while," said Stevens. "One day I decided this was something I want to do, but I don’t want to do it by myself.”

Venner added they were frustrated because “there weren't really any Catholic-specific children's prayer books (that we could find). Most were too vague or just generic."

“We wanted something that was for every Christian, but there are parts that are specific to being Catholic,” she said. 

The two friends spent about a year working on the book. They started with throwing out topics they wanted to focus on in the summer of 2023. Two of the main topics were growing in specific virtues and facing milestones.

The book contains 72 prayers. Each prayer is not more than five sentences long. They each start with “Dear Jesus” and end with “In your holy name, I pray.” The definition of each virtue is under the heading before the prayer.

Families could read one prayer a week throughout the year with some topics that might not be pertinent until a certain event happens.

"The goal was to make prayer a more attainable family time,” said Stevens. “I know there have been many times when a daughter is dishonest, and I just can’t find the words of how to pray more for that virtue specifically without fumbling. This gives parents a starting point.”

The authors finished the book the summer of 2024 and it became available for purchase by September.

Publishing
Once all the edits were done and they were ready to publish the book, Stevens and Venner realized it was not easy to find a publisher.

"Also, if we get under a publisher, they have the right to change things,” said Venner. “We wanted the integrity to stay and not get changed by an editor.”

They decided to self-publish through Amazon Direct/Kindle Publishing. Going this route, they needed to create everything themselves.

“We had to do everything – the cover, the layout, etc.,” said Venner. 

Stevens noted it was a “tedious cycle” of getting everything to look how they wanted.

Feedback
The authors have sold over 200 copies of Growing in Grace since it was released in September. This includes online sales through Amazon (see link below), the authors personally selling copies and through retail sales at local merchants.

"Overall, the response has been good," said Stevens. "Our family and friends are our biggest supporters. They have a lot of positive things to say. They say it is a beautiful book."

Just recently, when Venner was at Mass with her family, the family sitting in front of them shared they, “have your book and we read it every single night.”

The new religion teacher at Kuemper, who Venner works with occasionally, reads the prayer that correlates to the virtue of the month in her classroom.

Someone also contacted them to order 20 books to give to Austin Mollhoff, a second grader at Kuemper who was collecting items to be donated to the University of Iowa Children's Hospital in Iowa City.
“Then the books could be available to other kids and families while they are going through health needs,” said Venner. “That was really cool. It was their intent to buy the books to donate them.”

In the future, the authors hope to write a prayer book for the next age group – middle and high school. This will include prayers as well as the possibility of space for reflection or a journal.

“That is our next goal. We have a whole sheet of ideas,” said Stevens. “I would also love to make a rosary book about understanding the rosary for kids. I did not grow up understanding the rosary being confirmed as an adult. I love saying the rosary now, but it would be nice to be able to explain the mysteries to kids and the importance of the rosary at their level.”

Growing in Grace is available on Amazon at https://a.co/d/bAYKIkA. The book can also be found at approximately 12 merchants in the Carroll area. 

Note: When ordering from Amazon, the books print on demand, so it takes a little longer for the book to ship.

Katie Borkowski is a freelance writer based in rural Carroll County. She is a member of St. Rose of Lima Parish attending Manning Sacred Heart Church.