I am trying to build up our church library, especially the Men section, Teen section, and Childrens' section.  Can anyone recommend books in these areas?  I'm having a hard time figuring out what Christian men and teens like to read!  lol

also, if anyone has a deal they would like to offer me, I would appreciate it.  :)

Thanks!

Off the top of my head I know John C. Maxwell's books are popular...they are about leadership, etc.   And right now Tony Dungy's books are pretty popular.  Let me think a little longer & see what else I can come up with.

ETA:  Frank Peretti, Ted Dekker are a few fiction names I thought of...

When I was a teen (seems like a LONG time ago now), the Christy Miller series by Robin Jones Gunn was popular, as was the Cedar River Daydreams series by Judy Baer. These are fiction books for teen girls. Not sure what men would read (teen or adult).

Any of the Left Behind series for kids would be good.  Bill Myers and Frank Peretti both have books for kids. If you were to go to Christianbook.com you can look at books based on gender and age.  I know you can for fiction and I'm pretty sure that you can for the non-fiction also.

Steven James, Don Brown, Sigmund Brouwer, Craig Parshall, Creston Mapes would be some good names for men's fiction. Chuck Norris has a couple of westerns that are good and his autobiography is really good.  Joel Rosenberg has written several books that have been on the best seller list.  Jason Elam has one called Monday Night Jihad that combines football and espionage.  I got it just a couple of weeks ago.

I work with the library at our church and I have several books by the above authors.  There are probably a few others too but at the moment my mind is blanking out.

check out this website: www.wherethemapends.com It has alot of Christian Fantasy, and ALOT of the authors are in my church's library/bookstore (men seem to love fantasy!). ALot of them are on here, too, which is great! The creator of the website has excerpts for alot of the books or details about the authors so you can get to know a little more about them. He also puts links to the authors main site so if he couldn't get an excerpt for his site, possibly the authors site would have it. Definetely worth looking into!! I"ll be thinking of other authors, too! I know there are alot out there....

You could look at www.mardel.com the have men's and teens sections. That would give you a good idea of what's popular.

I was thinking...I have two preschool aged boys & they love the BOZ the bear series...There are books & DVDs.  I think the website is bozthebear.com   Of course Veggie Tales is very popular too.  Also Sheila Walsh has the Gigi series for girls & the Will the Warrior series for boys.

These are great suggestions, I'll check them out.  Thank you!  :)

Our girls loved the Mandie Series by Lois Gladys Leppard. Actually, my nephews enjoyed them too. You can find a listing here.

My nephew (early 20's) has loved the Zion Chronicles by Brock and Bodie Thoene, The Left Behind Series by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye, Robert Whitlow's books, and also Frank Peretti's. He's just discovered Christian fiction, and we're still introducing him to new authors.

There are some teen books by Sandra Byrd that might be good.  I haven't read them, but I read one of her books for adults, and I really enjoyed it.

I highly recommend that any church library have all of Gary Smalley's and Gary Chapman's books available. They both mostly write about marriage and parenting and they are great.

Jannette Oke's books, a historical fiction christian writer, would also be a nice touch to a church library.... I have a lot of her books and read them in my teenage years and just recently decieded to let them be enjoyed by someone else. I have about 25-30 posted on my bookshelf if you'd like to read the descriptions and see what they're all about!

Thanks Jess, but I already have a ton of Jannette Oke books, as well as Beverly Lewis.  :)

I mostly need men's intrest books, and general fiction that men or women would enjoy.  (I have too many "women" books on the shelves!  LOL)

I have found that Ted Dekker does well with the males in my house, females as well... lol. Great fantasy fiction from Dekker.

Patricia,

I am the volunteer librarian for my church's library.  I order and process each and every book.  Our library has been open for 3 years now so I have learned what our members are interested in.  Here are a few of our most popular authors for the groups you listed.

Men's Section (Christian Fiction)

• Alton Gansky books
• Randy Singer books
• Jefferson Scott books
• Mel Odom books
• Paul McCusker books
• Sigmund Brouwer books

Teen Section (Christian Fiction)

• Melody Carlson books (girls)
• Robin Jones Gunn books (girls)
• Debbie Viguie books (girls)
• Bryan Davis books (boys)
• Thomas Wayne Batson books (boys)
• Jerry Jenkins books (boys & girls)
• Lois Walfrid Johnson books (boys or girls)
• Ed Dunlop books (boys)

Children Section

• Dandi Daley Mackall books
• Melody Carlson books
• Beverly Lewis books
• Doug Peterson books
• Max Lucado books
• Todd Aaron Smith books

I hope this gives you some ideas.

Christine

Thanks so much, Christine.  That is really helpful!

and thanks to everyone who has offered suggestions here.  I will be checking into all of them!  :)

For Men--how about C.S. Lewis, Charles Spurgeon, John Macarthur,  Josh McDowell, David Jeremiah, A.W tozer, John Wesley, Charles Swindoll..

C.S. Lewis also has the Chronicles of Narnia series and that maybe geared for kids as well..

Any of the  "Chicken Soup For The Soul" books..........there's a ton of them out with all kinds of topics.....there's something for everyone.

Veggie Tales  (for kids)

Christy    by Catherine Marshall  (teens)

Julie  by   Catherine Marshall    (teens)

Any by Grace Livingston Hill  or Ruth Livingston Hill......these would be for older teens to adults  (women)

Precious Moments books   (kids)