Ionica by Marie Yoder

Summary: Ionica is a 6 year-old Romanian boy who lives with his grandmother and his four siblings after his parents die. Grandmother struggles to provide and the children go to bed hungry. Uncle Nicu, who has become a 'repenter' (what the Romanian Orthodox Church calls evangelical Christians), comes to the family's help. Ionica goes to live with his uncle and learns about God for the first time. Ionica learns that God loves him, has given His Son for him and will answer prayer.

Excerpt: "Ionca wandered to the living room window and leaned his hot forehead against the glass. Tearfully he gazed at the same old view from the fifth-floor apartment where he lived with his grandmother.
"Crowded together in front of him were gloomy apartment buildings of Bucharest, the largest city of Romania. Smoke from make factories billowed into the sky. Behind him was the dingy apartment.
"Ionica did not turn around to look at it. He knew what was there - and what was not there. No father. No mother. No money. No food.
"Grandmother did her best to care for Ionica and his two brothers and two sisters. But she was eighty-two years old. Sometimes she did not feel well, and most of the time she was tired..."

Other: Large, clear print. Illustrations on many pages.

Reading level: Read to 4-6 years; Read myself 6-8 years.

Paperback.
Pages: 69
Size: 150 x 230mm
Christian Light Publications. 2011

Bible Version: KJV

Also available as an audiobook:
1 CD
1.25 hours long