Derinda Nicole Spence
Finding a new adventure is always fun for a playful, little squirrel named Andrew. Come along as Andrew teaches his friends the true meaning of Proverbs fifteen, verse three, when Dale steals from old Mr. Lavers antique store in Acornville and the valuable lesson all the friends learn.
Derinda Nicole Spence has been the librarian in her church's Christian school, Providence, in Riverview, Florida for the past seven years. In the church, she serves along side her husband, David in the Youth Department Ministry as well as the choir. Nicole, as she prefers to be called, started this children's Christian fiction book series (KJV only) from a desire to see children learn the true meaning of God's word through easy to understand verses, set to easy to read first chapter books targeting children ages 6 - 10.
After what seemed like scurrying for a very long time, Andrew finally caught up to his friends very much out of breath. “See, it’s right here,” he heard Dale say, “I told you this was the best place to build a tree house. Isn’t it awesome!” The three friends looked to the very edge of the big woods to see that there in the middle of a clearing, at the end of the tall, green grass, was indeed the perfect tree.
It had perfectly spaced, small, round notches just right for the friends to climb. Branches that seemed to sprawl out in all the right spots just enough to place small, wooden boards here and there and just enough leaves on every branch to provide the friends with some much needed shade from the hot, summer sun. Then, there beside the tree, were all kinds of neat but odd things. There was a tall, oddly shaped door; two small, old, rickety, white rocking chairs; one very old brown table with only three legs and a little square window that still had every piece of glass shining perfectly in the small, white frame. Jay looked around at the bottom of the tree. “Wow! Where did you get all this really cool stuff?” “I, uh, I found it,” fumbled Dale as he tried not to look at his friends. “You found it, huh?” said Shep coming across the field toward the friends with Anna following close behind. “Hi Shep, hi Anna,” said Andrew, “what have you guys been up to today?” “Oh not much,” said Anna, “we were just running along the trail looking for you guys when we heard talking. What are you doing way out here at the edge of the big woods?” “Well, Marty and Jay and I were just about to go on a new adventure when Dale came along and said he had the best place ever for us to build our tree house,” said Andrew, “so we followed him out here.” “Yeah, isn’t this tree awesome? Just think of all the adventures we could have out here!” said Marty. “I think Dale has already been on an adventure that none of us know about,” Shep said as he stared directly at Dale. “Hey, now wait one minute Shep. Just what do you mean by that?” said Dale in a very raised voice. “Well, just where did all this stuff come from anyway, Dale?” asked Shep. “Did you really just find it or did you get it from old Mr. Lavers’ junk pile in the back of his antique store?” The friends all looked at Dale in surprise and wonder. “Well,” said Dale, “it is all just old worn out stuff anyway that nobody would want.” Marty, Jay and Anna nodded in agreement with Dale, but Andrew started to get a very bad feeling. A feeling he hadn’t had before and wasn’t quite sure what it was.
