guide to categories : Author Interview – an interview with an author, if there is no review from me, I have not read the book and cannot speak to its appropriateness for a school library

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Coop Messes Up

The Wheelies Book 1

by Sarah Reju

Illustrated by Tania Rex

Retail Price: $16.99

Juvenile Fiction/Religious/Christian/Values and Virtues

For parents with a little one who loves to play with cars and trucks, a new series of books written by Sarah Reju and illustrated by Tania Rex will surely become an instant favorite. The Wheelies are a family of vehicles whose adventures are both fun and relatable to children ages 3–8. And when trouble finds young Coop, as it always seems to do, the truth of the gospel always steers him back in the right direction. 

In book one, Coop Messes Up, the youngest member of the Wheelie family learns a big lesson in forgiveness and God’s love when he breaks one of the rules. Like many little ones, the energetic and inquisitive MINI-Cooper has a problem obeying the rules—and there are a lot of them! When Coop runs out of gas, his sister, Lucy, a police car who prides herself on always following the law, tries to help him learn to follow the rules. 

Read my review of Coop Messes Up

Q: Your new series, The Wheelies, is about a family of cars which is sure to capture the attention of little readers. Can you introduce us to the cast of characters?

Coop Wheelie is the youngest member of a family of vehicles who live in Capital City. He’s an energetic Mini Cooper whose frequent mistakes help him learn big truths about God. 

In addition to Coop, the Wheelie family includes siblings Nory (a fun-loving VW Beetle), Lucy (a rule-following police car), Joy (an adventure-loving Jeep), and James (a dependable pickup truck). Ma is a hard-working fire truck, and Pops is a servant-hearted garbage truck. 

Q: Coop is what most would consider to be the typical youngest child of a family. What is his quickest route to finding himself in trouble? 

Like many kids, Coop has a hard time following the rules, especially the rule about refueling when your tank gets low. He plays long and hard and forgets to fill up until it’s too late. Then, he lies about it to his mother because he’s afraid of disappointing her. 

Coop feels bad and wants to do better, but he keeps getting distracted and messing up. He thinks the solution is to try harder to follow more rules, and naturally turns to his big sister, Lucy, for help.

Q: Tell us about Lucy, Coop’s big sister who is a police car and the epitome of a rule follower. What lesson does she try to teach Coop?

Lucy is a hard worker who is ready to help her little brother shape up and become more like her. She prides herself on her ability to perfectly follow the rules. She is prone to self-righteousness and judges others who don’t follow the rules as well as she does. She thinks Coop’s problem could be solved if he just tried harder. 

When Coop and Lucy run out of gas together, Lucy is quick to blame Coop for their trouble. Lucy is shocked and humbled when she learns that Ma, the seemingly perfect fire truck who comes to their rescue, confesses that she struggles to follow the rules herself. 

Q: Do you have any tips for parents who have a child who is like Coop and seems to be the sibling that messes up the most? How do you try to lead children to have a healthier respect for the rules?

I’d suggest that parents first seek to understand why their child is messing up so much. Is it deliberate disobedience where the child knows the rules but chooses to flagrantly disobey? Is challenging authority typical for your child? If so, she likely needs clear boundaries and spelled-out consequences that you consistently follow through on. She also needs lots of encouragement and celebration when she wisely chooses to obey.

Or is your child messing up because she gets distracted a lot? Is she so focused on whatever she’s doing that she forgets the rules? This child might actually want to do better and be really discouraged by how often she messes up. A child like this needs a big dose of encouragement and support, maybe breaking tasks into smaller parts with cues along the way to remind her of the rules.  

Q: What about kids who tend to be like Lucy? How do you help your rule-follower children not become too self-righteous?

Rule-followers need to learn that their obedience is not for their glory—it’s for God’s glory! God put good authority in our kids’ lives to bless them, so when they obey, it honors God. They need to take their eyes off themselves and fix their eyes on the Lord. Kids like Lucy who tend to be self-righteous and find their identity in their good works need lots of reminders of grace. They need to know they can’t earn your love by what they do, but that you love them all the time, no matter what. This is a picture for them of the way God loves us.

Let them know that you expect them to mess up—it’s a normal part of being human. They’ll likely need help learning to take responsibility for their sins, rather than blaming others for their problems. Jesus is the only one who ever obeyed perfectly, and his perfect obedience is theirs if they repent and trust in Jesus. 

Q: When Lucy and Coop both run out of gas, what lesson does the duo learn? 

Lucy and Coop learn that Ma loves them completely, simply because they are her kids. She doesn’t love them more when they obey, or less when they disobey. Ma’s unconditional love for her kids is a picture of the way God has loved her. 

Ma forgives Lucy and Coop for breaking the family rules because God has already forgiven her for breaking his law. Lucy and Coop begin to experience the freedom and peace that come from turning from their sin and being forgiven. 

Q: What do you hope all children will learn about unconditional love from reading Coop Messes Up?

Sadly, many children are growing up under the crushing burden of thinking they have to perform in order to be loved. My prayer is that children who read Coop’s story will come to know the God who loves them simply because he loves them. 

Before they were even born, God knew all the ways they would mess up. He loved them so much that he sent his son, Jesus, to obey for them, to die for them, and to be raised again for them, so that they can be forgiven and find new life with him. 

Q: How do we make sure that our kids understand that just because we love them unconditionally, even when they mess up, that doesn’t mean that they don’t have to try to follow the rules or face the consequences of their choices?

Part of loving our kids unconditionally includes helping them learn to live under the Lordship of Christ. God made the world, so he gets to set the rules, and his rules are for our good, to help us flourish. Kids do need to learn to obey God, and experience consequences when they disobey. 

But all of this should be in the larger context of understanding how much God loves them, and that his rules are for their good. He’s not a harsh taskmaster who’s looking for ways to make them miserable. He’s a good Father who knows what’s best for them and loves them enough to help them keep on his path. It also helps kids when they see that parents and other adults need to obey God too, and that we experience consequences when we disobey.

Q: Why is it important to confess some of the ways we mess up to our children?

Our kids already know we are not perfect. Or if they don’t know it yet, they will definitely know it by the time they are teenagers. Part of modeling the Christian life for them is letting them see what we do when we sin. Are we humble? Do we seek forgiveness and reconciliation? Do we take ownership for our sin and do what we can to make things right? Do our kids see us relying on the Savior that we claim to believe in? 

Especially when our sin involves our children, we need to humble ourselves and seek their forgiveness. Our exhortations to them to confess and seek Jesus are going to mean a whole lot more if they have seen us living this out ourselves.

Q: Coop Messes Up is the first book in The Wheelies series. Can you give us a little spoiler of what’s coming up in the series?

The next book is called Coop Helps Out. Pops (the garbage truck) gets sick, and Coop feels responsible. Coop learns what it means to be a humble servant, like Pops, and in the process gets to know more about Jesus, the best servant who ever lived.

Coop Learns He Can comes next. Coop and his sister Joy (the Jeep) go on an outdoor adventure. Coop is sad he wasn’t made to do all the cool stuff Joy can do. But when Joy gets stuck, Coop is able to rescue her precisely because of the way he was made. He learns what it means to be fearfully and wonderfully made by God.

Purchase Coop Messes Up on Amazon – https://amzn.to/4bkj8Bj

About the Author – Sarah Reju, MDiv

Sarah is a pastor’s wife and mother living in Washington, DC. She has a MDiv in Christian Ministry from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Reju is the author of the children’s books Jesus Saves, God Is Better Than Trucks, God Is Better Than Princesses, and Coop Messes Up (the first in the new Wheelies series).  Sarah and her husband, Deepak, have five children.

About the Illustrator: Tania Rex 

Tania was born and raised in Vilnius, Lithuania. She’s happiest when she can take an idea and turn it into a picture. Experimenting with styles and drawing is how she spends most of her spare time. Tania draws inspiration from little everyday miracles, aiming to point audience attention to the ever-present magic of real life.

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