Books with author Deb Brammer

Deb Brammer’s Peanut Butter Friends in a Chop Suey World is a Christian fiction missionary story set in Taiwan. When Amy’s family moves to Taiwan to begin missionary work, she is determined to be a good missionary. But the neighborhood girls laugh at her, and Sunday services at the Chinese church become an ordeal. It seems that the only place she feels comfortable is at the English-speaking school with her peanut butter friends. In this middle-grade book Amy struggles to trust God as she learns how to live with new people and understand a different language.

Amy is excited to move to Taiwan with her parents and become a real missionary, but she soon finds that being a missionary is a lot different than she thought it would be. This book for kids aged 9-12 gives an inside view of missionaries and the cultural adjustments they need to make. Discussion Questions for Peanut Butter Friends in a Chop Suey World:In this book Amy Kramer moves from one culture to another. Each country or a group of people from an area shares ideas and beliefs and attitudes that make up their culture. This culture affects how those people think and talk and act. Amy moved from an American culture to a Chinese culture. When people move from one culture to a very different culture they often go through three phases:Phase 1: Wow! This is so cool! Everything is new and different and exciting. It's easy to see the good in the differences.Phase 2: This stinks! The things that are different seem stupid and disgusting. You feel like you could tell people in the new culture how to do things better, like people do things in your home culture.Phase 3: This is life. The new culture has both good and bad things. You learn to accept the new culture and change your ways to make the new culture work for you.As you read Peanut Butter Friends notice how Amy works through these three stages.1. Of all the things Amy experienced in phase 1, when she first moved to Taiwan, which things do you think you would enjoy?2. If you have read Two Sides to Everything, also by Deb Brammer, contrast Amy Kramer's original home in Pinedale, Wyoming with Josh McKay's in Denver, Colorado. Then compare their new homes in Taiwan and New Zealand. What changes did each of them have to make? 3. Do you know any words in a foreign language? Have you ever used them to talk to people in that language who didn't know English? Did they understand what you said?4. Do you know anyone like Mickey who gets left out by other kids? How do you think the left-out kid feels? Why do you think the other kids leave that person out? Have you ever tried to be friends with a left-out kid? Why is that hard to do?5. Jessica lives in a beautiful house in Taiwan which is almost like living in America. Her school is similar to an American school and her friends act a lot like Americans, though they live in a Chinese country. Do you think she misses out on anything because of this? What?6. In chapter eleven Amy goes to Jessica's birthday party, and we begin to see her move into stage 2. How does the party affect Amy's attitude toward her Chinese neighbors?7. Amy doesn't like these things about her Chop Suey friends: They keep repeating "hallo" and "A-tok-a" when they see her. They stare at her. They give her things she doesn't like. How does the difference in culture affect these things? Are her Chop Suey friends trying to be rude or mean when they do these things? Why do you think they act like this?8. On page 110 Amy decides she needs to treat her Chop Suey friends better. She decides if she looks them in the eye, smiles at them, and doesn't do anything to hurt them, that is enough. What is she missing?9. In chapter thirteen Amy defends Mickey's rock drawings and Jessica gets mad. Why do you think this makes Jessica so mad?10. Throughout the book Jessica tries to change everyone to be like her. Amy tries to change Mickey. In the end Amy learns to accept Mickey for who she is, even though Amy hopes Mickey will become a Christian. How does the author use this to say something about Amy's change in culture?11. On page 147 Dawn talks about the differences in people, language and food between the American culture and the Chinese culture. When does being different make a culture exciting and when does it make it annoying? How can our attitude make the difference?12. In chapter seventeen Amy meets the neighbor girl and sees her in a new way. Why does that push Amy toward phase 3?

Josh leaves Denver to live with an uncle he has never met on a New Zealand sheep farm. New Zealand looks pretty ordinary, but he soon faces cultural differences that aren't so obvious. Josh sees problems in his school and sets out to fix them, but first he has to see a different side to life than he has ever seen before. This humorous book for kids aged 9-13 explores differences in culture and personality and encourages the reader to look at life from a different point of view.Discussion Questions for Two Sides to Everything:1. Have you ever visited a place very different from your normal home life? Was it fun or scary? What did you learn about life while you were there?2. If you have read Peanut Butter Friends in a Chop Suey World, contrast that book with this one. How were Josh McKay's original home and Amy Kramer's alike and different? How were their new homes alike and different? Why do you think the author made Josh to be from a big city and Amy to be from a small town?3. When you think of a church on a mission field, what do you picture? Think about the missionaries you know. Who works with poor people? Who works with people like middle class Americans? Which missionaries work only in English? Which missionaries work in other languages? What are they?4. Do you have someone at your school like Neville who calls all the shots, someone whom no one dares to stand up to? Why do you think people always do what that person says to do?5. Think of someone at your school who isn't very popular. Why do you think others don't like him? What are some good things about him? Have you ever tried to be his friend?6. Think of a person you don't like very much. What could you learn from her?7. Discuss how Josh became like Neville in the math exam incident. When someone says something mean to you, how can you avoid responding the same way? 8. On page 123 Carlton talks about dogs being like people. If you were a dog, what kind would you want to be? What kind of dog are you most like?9. What are some ways Josh changed by the end of the book? What do you think made him change?10. How is a New Zealand sheep farm and country school different from your home and school? How would this story have been different if it had been set in a big city?11. What main idea do you think the author was trying to get across in this book? Did you learn anything from the book?12. Think of something that happened in your family in the last month. How do you think your various family members thought about it? How would the same thing seem different to your mom or your dad or your sister?

Moose, a new believer, drives other Christians crazy because he can't figure out how to act in his new Christian world. Other Christian teens can't figure him out either. This humorous young adult book explores the challenges Christian teens face when stretching past their Christian subculture to reach the world beyond.Discussion Questions for Moose:1. If you are a Christian, can you think of a time you were totally surrounded by unbelievers who had very different values and priorities? How did that make you feel? Did you try to blend in? 2. How do you think an unbeliever feels when he or she visits your church or youth group? How could you make him or her feel more comfortable?3. When you participate in sports are you usually one of the best, the worst, or average? Have you ever made your team lose? Did that make you afraid to try that same sport again? Have you ever said words to a loser that humiliated him or her?4. What pranks have you pulled on other people? What pranks have others pulled on you? What is the best prank you've heard of? Did any of the pranks backfire and hurt someone or get someone in trouble?5. How much do you think God controls our lives? Does hard work on our part make a difference to what happens in our lives? What are some ways God can use difficult things in our lives? What are some good things God has done for you? Do you feel closer to God when things are going well or when life is particularly difficult?6. How do you feel when you think people are nice to you simply to get you to do what they want? Is that different from being nice to someone so he'll get saved? In what way? Why should you bother being nice and friendly to someone if you think he'll never get saved?7. Do you think it's right to be a friend to people mainly to influence them to make good life choices? Would you still want to be their friend if they make bad choices and won't listen to you?8. What do you think God was doing before he created the earth and the angels? What questions do you have about God that you know you won't find the answer to duringyour lifetime?9. Contrast Cody's idea of friendship with Wesley's. What kind of friend are you to unbelievers and new believers? What could you learn from Cody or Wesley?10. What character do you like most in Moose? Which do you like least? Who are you most like?11. We can learn from people we don't like and who aren't like us. What did Wesley learn from Moose? What did Moose learn from Wesley?12. Cody wanted his team to win so Moose would like camp and grow as a Christian. How do you think the final outcome affected Moose?

In Two Sides to Everything, a Christian fiction by Deb Brammer, going to New Zealand while his mother recovers from an accident seems like a simple enough choice to Josh. After all, New Zealanders speak the same language he does. But after he arrives, Josh begins to have doubts even about that, and he is concerned about the exclusion, bullying, resentment, and fear he sees in his classmates. Working on the sheep farm doesn’t prove to be the haven he had hoped either. Slowly Josh realizes that his own heart is the soil in which the first seeds of change will have to be planted.

Moose, Christian fiction by Deb Brammer, brings to life all the excitement and struggles of a teen Bible camp, including rivalry, pranks, wild animals, and especially people problems. One of Cody’s biggest problems is Moose. Moose is a miracle, a huge, clumsy, honest miracle. But living with a miracle can take a lot of patience, especially when Moose still struggles with smoking and controlling his language. Cody wonders if the other Christians at Moose Peak Bible Camp can love Moose enough to give him a chance.