Last week, Bryan Davis reported that he’d managed to make the CBA best-seller list for youth. In the number three spot is Raising Dragons, the first in Davis’ Dragons in Our Midst series, while the last book, Tears of a Dragon, sits in seventh place.

This is quite the accomplishment because if you look at the rest of the list you will see there are no other novels there. Other than a Christian comic book, there is no other fiction. (Though I am very happy to see Buzz Dixon’s new Manga, Serenity: Bad Girl in Town, selling so well.)

Typically there isn’t fiction on the youth best-seller list. It’s not that there is no youth fiction in the CBA. It’s there, it simply doesn’t sell well.

Take a look at those best-selling titles: Every Young Woman’s Battle and Every Young Man’s Battle are in the one and two spots. I’ve read the reviews at Amazon and, for the most part, they aren’t written by teens. These books, I’d guess, are picked up by parents with the intent of helping children. What teen, who needs a book about straightening out his thoughts on sex, is hanging out in the local CBA store in the first place?

It’s great the parents are buying these books for their kids. It’s wonderful that older singles are picking them for themselves. I’m not knocking these books. But I’m wondering why these books sell so much better than novels. Take all the teens I’ve ever known and ask them if they prefer novels or nonfiction books and 99.99% will choose novels.

So why are the teen bestsellers all nonfiction? I can only guess that teens don’t shop in CBA stores. Anxious mothers shop in CBA stores. And, clearly, they like the “how to live a pure life and not grow up to be a homosexual or any other kind of diseased sexual deviate” types of books. Hey, it’s cool. I’m going to be assigning a couple of these books in my own homeschool this year.

But what have mothers got against novels? Why are they not selling well?

Now they are. Bryan Davis leads the way, as he’s been doing since AMG first published Raising Dragons. He’s finally on the bestseller list and I praise God for that. I’ll tell you why.

Story reaches us in a way that straight doctrinal discourse can’t do. Much of the Bible is story. True story, sure, and that’s why the best nonfiction books are filled with anecdotes. But story is what matters, even more than fact over fiction. A fictional story that is truthful–that rightly discloses the relationships between God and man, or man and man, or man and nature–is every bit as effective at changing readers, as a nonfiction story (and far more effective, I believe, than dry facts, even if those facts are presented in bullet form with snazzy subtitles and short paragraphs).

This is why I’m so happy to see Bryan’s books on the bestseller list.

Christian mothers, if you are looking for books for your troubled teen, think about buying fiction along with the “how to” books on beating down sexual temptation. Really think about it. Think about the books that shaped your lives. The ones that made you want to be better, stronger, happier, more loving, more generous. Which books made you long to go to the mission field and give it all up for God? Some of them were true stories, no doubt. But they were stories, I’m willing to wager.

If you don’t want your kids reading fiction, then buy them the Christian Heroes: Then and Now books by Janet and Geoff Benge. Great, great missionary stories. If your kids are younger, go for The Trailblazer books by Dave and Neta Jackson.

And then think about trying a little fiction.

Be discerning. Try fiction that means something–that has a point besides simple entertainment. Try fiction that takes the child to another culture, or leads them on a life changing adventure. But try it. At least try it. You might be pleasantly surprised.

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