During the COVID-19 pandemic, Filipino publishers saw a sharp decline in their sales. In 2020, the industry in the Philippines lost more than half its revenue as physical bookstores closed and people lost their jobs and disposable income. E-books are not common in the country; a 2024 survey found that 74 percent of readers prefer printed books over other types of reading including magazines, newspapers, and e-books.
OMF Literature, one of the largest Christian publishers in the country, also felt the impact of the pandemic on its sales, said Myrna Reyes, former head of publication and current publishing consultant at OMF Lit. As a result, they have licensed fewer books from the US.
Yet one bright spot Reyes sees is Hiyas (Gem), OMF Lit’s children’s book imprint, as more Filipino Christians are writing and illustrating original books. Before the pandemic, children’s books contributed about 15 percent to total company sales, according to OMF Lit. This fiscal year, its contribution is estimated to be slightly over 70 percent. While not all the children’s books are explicitly Christian, “our priority is sharing Christian values through our stories,” Reyes said.
Christianity Today spoke with five Filipino children’s book authors about the challenges and blessings of writing for the next generation.
Luis Gatmaitan
With colorful drawings and emotive characters, most of Luis Gatmaitan’s books explore the human body, drawing from his expertise as a pediatrician.
For instance, the 2021 book Covidoom! follows the battle inside a boy named Jonas between the evil coronavirus and his antibodies, which are anthropomorphized as soldiers on a battlefield. Written in both English and Filipino, the book is aimed at five-to-seven-year-olds.
“I want children to see that the God who made us is amazing,” he said.
Gatmaitan, who has written more than 40 storybooks, said he seeks to promote health literacy among Filipino children, where undernutrition is rampant. Books in the series Mga Kwento ni Tito Dok (The Stories of Uncle Doc) explain what happens when a child is bitten by a dog, gets lice, and contracts leptospirosis, a bacterial disease, from floodwater. He noted that children’s books from the West aren’t equipped to address issues in the Global South.
“I want Filipino children to see that they have a face in the world,” he said.
One woman shared with Gatmaitan that when her child read Ayan na si Bolet Bulate! (Here Comes Bolet Worm!), a story about how parasitic worms can enter the body when one is barefoot and has long fingernails, he asked her to cut his nails for him. Gatmaitan’s works highlight the intricacies of creation and teach kids how to care for their bodies well.
In 2005, the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards inducted Gatmaitan into its hall of fame after he won five Palanca Awards, the highest literary honor in the Philippines.
Jacqueline Franquelli
Jacqueline Franquelli won third place in the Palanca Awards in 2019 for her children’s book Anak ng Tinapay (The Bread Baker’s Daughter).
With bright, warm scenes set inside a bakery and an extensive glossary of Filipino breads, the story follows a baker and his daughter, Niña, who wants to follow in his footsteps to bake bread. Yet her father discourages her, telling her to instead pursue a profession that would guarantee her a better life. The story resonates with Filipinos, as it explores family dynamics and parents’ concerns about their children’s economic well-being.
Franquelli said she was inspired to write another book, Alin? Alin? Ang Daming Damdamin! (This or That? I Feel a Whole Lot), after spending time with her nephew. “I want to show children, especially young boys, the importance of recognizing their God-given emotions,” she said.
After college Franquelli worked in Manila at the Museo Pambata children’s museum, where she was exposed to children’s literature through her job’s reading campaigns. Afterward, she became a freelance writer and teacher at a Catholic seminary in Manila.
Today, she writes children’s stories in between grading her students’ papers. The publishing process has taught Franquelli patience because of the long wait time between writing a story, letting the illustrator work on its visuals, and putting the book into the world. “Waiting is a faith-strengthening exercise,” she said.
Despite the long delays, she said Hebrews 11:1 (“Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see”) keeps her hopeful in the face of rejection and encourages her as she waits.
Maloi Malibiran-Salumbides
Maloi Malibiran-Salumbides’ journey into children’s literature is also a story of faith. Best known for the radio show Protips, which teaches Christians how to live out their faith in the workplace, Malibiran-Salumbides still recalls the sting she felt as publishers rejected many of her early stories.
Then, in 2019 she attended a workshop with leading publishers. Hiyas picked her story idea Tinola ni Nanay (Mother’s Chicken Soup) and agreed to find an illustrator and publish her book. The story follows a young boy who prepares a dish for his incarcerated mother. Readers learn she is serving time for a crime she didn’t commit.
After the book was published, Malibiran-Salumbides remembers reading it to a group of children in the city of Batangas. When she asked her audience why they thought the mom was in prison, they responded, “She was a bad person.”
It was an opportunity for Malibiran-Salumbides to explain to kids that not all the people in prison have committed crimes. It was also a chance to teach Christian values like honoring parents and visiting someone in prison.
“You cannot manipulate kids,” she said, noting that adults often talk down to children instead of explaining complex topics through stories. Malibiran-Salumbides said the image she has in her mind when she writes stories for kids is Jesus humbly inviting the little children to come to him. “We need to be children ourselves and see the world through their eyes.”
Grace Chong
Grace Chong sees the task of making abstract concepts understandable to younger readers as a ministry. A retired executive vice president at an advertising agency, she has written more than 40 children’s books. “It’s not for honor or readership,” she said. “It’s for the Lord.”
Half and Half in the Oh Mateo! series is a story about a farmer’s son, Teo, who shares fruits with his father. “It helps the church talk to children about sharing their blessings” rather than hoarding them, she said.
In the books in the series, which are written in English with parallel Filipino text, Teo meets a balikbayan girl (an overseas Filipino returning to the Philippines), a fruit-eating dog, and crying children. Despite their differences, Teo loves them well because of his love for God, and he sets an example for other kids to do the same.
“My advocacy is for kids to love reading,” Chong said, noting that today many kids grow up scrolling on their smartphones rather than reading books. According to a 2022 study by the World Bank, nine out of ten Filipino ten-year-olds struggle to read simple text.
Chong received feedback from parents who said her books have turned their children into book lovers: “Thank you for giving us tools to teach values to our children.”
Jojie Wong
Meanwhile, Jojie Wong wants to help the church talk to children about missions, so she wrote abridged illustrated biographies of China missionaries J. Hudson Taylor and Eric Liddell, which are distributed by the OMF mission agency internationally. Wong focuses on how God was with these missionaries and how he helped them overcome their trials.
In the future, she also wants to profile Filipino missionaries who have made an impact on their country.
One time, a Christian preschool invited Wong to speak about loving people from different religious backgrounds. She struggled to find material for her presentation, so she ended up writing the book Peter and Ahmed about a friendship between two boys, one Christian and one Muslim.
“Christians stay inside our own cultural bubble to the point where we don’t interact with people from different backgrounds,” she said. She hopes her books help kids learn not to discriminate but instead to see the inherent value of people as God made them.
Wong first heard the gospel story as a preschooler, so she finds value in sharing God’s love with kids early on.
“A seed was planted in me as a child, and later on I realized who God is,” she said. “We need to take the opportunity for seeds of the gospel to be planted among other children.”
Additional reporting by Angela Lu Fulton
