Welcome to my blio. It’s a new word I made up that means blog and bio all in one. Maybe it will catch on. Maybe it won’t.

I was born and raised in Holland, Michigan on May 9, 1951, and given the name Crystal Jean Langejans. My friends called me Christy when I was little, and then Chris when I was still little but older. I’m 5’2" and Dutch people are usually tall, but I am not. I grew up in a nice town with great people and I own a pair of wooden shoes. After graduating from Holland Christian High School, I went off to the big city of Grand Rapids to pursue higher education at Calvin College with my BFFs. 

After graduating from Calvin College with a degree in elementary education, I married my boyfriend (who then became my husband) and moved to Ann Arbor, MI where he was attending dental school at U of M. The only teaching job I could get with no experience was a position at Little Angel’s Nursery School. This is not what I had in mind when I was studying calculus and chemistry, but I guess it was what God had in mind. I actually enjoyed it and realized that teaching munchkins was my thing. So I took some graduate courses in early childhood development at Uof M, since it was practically in my back yard. 

When Bob, (my boyfriend who became my husband) graduated from U of M (I was so proud!) we moved back to Grand Rapids. I got a job as teacher-director at Lollipop Preschool (who thinks up these names?) and taught for two more years. Then we had our first baby boy (well actually I had it, thank you very much, but Bob had a little to do with it) . Then we  had another son a few years later, and a few years after that the boys finally ended up with a sister (we definitely needed some pink in the house). So while I was raising our three little angels (I figured that’s better than calling them lollipops), I started writing a little bit now and then. I actually wrote my first poem when I was 10 years old, and my teacher Mrs. Beckman told me I was going to be a poet someday, so I guess that writing was always a part of me, but I didn’t really do it that much until I had kids. 

So then I got this offer to write lyrics for children’s piano music and I’ve written over 100 songs for piano lesson books. So if you play the piano, you might see my name on some of the pages--especially the Piano Adventure books by Faber and Faber. That’s not 2 guys named Faber but a husband and wife, Randy and Nancy, whose last names are Faber.

When our kids were all in school, I did some poetry lessons in the schools and  the kids wanted copies of my poems, so I figured I might as well make a book of funny poems. I knew that the publishers didn’t want poems, so I did it myself and had 5000 copies of CRACKS IN THE SIDEWALK printed. Wow! That was expensive! But I sold them all pretty fast and then I had 5000 more books printed and I sold those too. So then I was talking with an editor at Zondervan, and I asked him what I would have to write in order to get his attention (the fact that I sold 10,000 books all by myself already had his attention). He said they needed someone to develop a beginning reader series and asked if I had any experience with preschoolers. Hmm. Maybe that’s why God had me teach preschool way back then. Anyway, I wrote a couple chapters and made up this kid named Jonathan James and five years later they decided to publish it, only the kid turned out to be a lop-earred rabbit.  I wrote 8 books in the series and they did pretty well. Then I wrote a kids’ poetry book for Zondervan called IF PEAS COULD TASTE LIKE CANDY.  It was a fun book and lasted for over 10 years, but it is now out of print so you can only get it on ebay for like $50, and I wouldn’t even pay that much for my own books so I don’t expect people to buy it anymore. 

Then I wrote a kids’ book for the Holland, Michigan Tulip Time Festival. It’s called WINDMILLS AND WOODEN  SHOES because there is a real windmill in Holland and people wear wooden shoes with their Dutch costumes when they go to the parades. This guy named Joel Tanis painted awesome pictures for the book and if you live in Michigan you know who he is because he is famous. Joel also did the illustrations for a new edition of CRACKS IN THE SIDEWALK that was published by Baker several years ago. Since then is has been published again by Winepress, and you can find it on their website or on Amazon.   

Some other companies wanted me to write for them so I started writing for Baker, Eerdmans, Cook, Tyndale, Focus on the Family, and Standard. I think that’s all. It’s really fun to be writing so many books. I’ve actually written over 60 books and sometimes I lose track of how many I’ve written. I wrote a holiday board book series for Zonderkidz (that’s what they call the kids’ division now) and 5 of them made the best sellers list! I was so shocked! MY HAPPY PUMPKIN  made it to # 1 and MY THANKSGIVING PRAYER and AN EASTER GIFT FOR ME both made it to #2.  MY VALENTINE STORY was #3, and J IS FOR JESUS was #4.

I’ve also written several books for Tyndale’s Little Blessings Series. THE ONE YEAR BOOK OF DEVOTIONS FOR PRESCHOOLERS has sold close to 100,000 copies, and it is so cool to think about all those little kids learning about Jesus.  IS GOD ALWAYS WITH ME, is another Little Blessings book that is doing well because moms like the title and think it’d be a good book for their kids. 

If you know about the FROG AND TOAD books or LITTLE BEAR,  then you are familiar with the I CAN READ books by Harper Collins. Harper is the parent company for Zondervan and they are letting Zonderkidz use the I CAN READ logo, which is really cool since those books are famous.  Well, I rewrote some of my Jonathan James books from long ago, and they are now I CAN READ books, only the rabbit’s name is now Jake because Harper said Jonathan James was too long. Also, I have an adorable nephew from Ethiopia whose name is Jake, and so it’s really cool to have books with his name on the cover!

I have 4 new I CAN READ BOOKS in a series called Otter and Owl, and I think they are my favorite books, but I always say that when something new comes out. They are really funny and the illustrator did a great job of making these little guys come to life. Boys will really like them but girls will too.

Another book I wrote is called THE HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF TOWN. I wrote it several years ago and had a feeling that God had something special in mind for that book. Standard published it in 2007 and promoted it with their Vacation Bible School materials since it had the theme of helping neighbors. Well, I thought that was the special thing that God had in mind, but then something else really cool happened in July of 2008. The Extreme Makeover Home Edition people were in Cincinnati which is where Standard is located. So Heather Gims from Standard brought a book to the site and showed it to someone who said they could donate them if they wanted to. Standard gave away over 1000 books to all the volunteers who worked on the house! How cool is that!  Even Ty has a copy of my book, but I have one of his designer bedspreads so I guess we’re even.

I’m still writing and have some new stuff coming out this year. I have 4 new I CAN READ BOOKS that will be released this summer. They are about a little mouse named David and they sort of parallel some of the stories of David in the Bible. I also have another BOZ book coming out (I have 2 out already) and I have a Bible storybook that just came out with Tyndale. It’s called THE READ AND RYHME BIBLE STORYBOOK. It’s for kids who are learning to read, and it is written in rhyme which is why it’s called THE READ AND RYHME BIBLE STORYBOOK. It has some vocab words and rhyme words to learn, as well as some fun activities. Have you ever heard of Veggie Tales? Well, Cindy Kenney is one of the main writers for Veggie, and she and I wrote this book together because she is so fun and writing it together made it really good.  I hope we have a chance to do more books together because we make a good team.

If you are a kid writing a report about me, you should know that I’ve also written 3 books for women and lots of magazine articles, news articles, and stuff like that. I wrote a couple teacher resource books and they were given The Teachers’ Choice Award, so I guess the teachers liked them. My BFF Karen DeVries writes a lot of those, and she asked me to do some because she got really busy.

I also do a lot of speaking (check out the speaker info link) and I’ve been on tons of radio programs and a few TV programs. I don’t get nervous for those because you can’t see all the people who are listening to you talk about yourself. I especially like radio shows because you can wear whatever you want since no one can see you. One time I had to do an early morning show so I wore my sweats and didn’t even do my hair or make-up.

Right now I have a few ideas in the hands of editors and publishers, so I am really hoping that if God wants me to keep writing, then some of those ideas will turn into books. I will let you know if I get some good news. 

So that is everything I can think of for now.  Thanks for being interested in my work. I love writing, and since I write books that help kids learn more about God, it all has a greater purpose!     

Crystal

PS I am now living in Florida since I don’t like cold weather, but I go to Michigan in the summer because I miss my family and friends up there.