Secrets of the Ancient Manual: (Every Dragon Slayer's Must-Read Guide)

This must-read for every Dragon Slayer or Dragon-Slayer-to-be, is Sir Wyvern Pugilist’s long-awaited guide to the Bible for kids. By retelling key stories from the Ancient Manual (aka the “Bible”), he guides the reader through the Manual’s puzzling network of crisscrossing tunnels, stopping to excavate its caves, and eventually shines a brilliant light on the treasures hidden deep within its chambers—the answers to your questions about slimy, disgusting dragons, and why we’re here with them, and where to find rescue from their deathly clutches. Read his manual alongside the Ancient Manual—and you will never be the same.

Joyce Denham is the author of many internationally-published books for children and adults on Celtic Christianity, prayer, and the lives of the saints. A literature teacher by training and profession, she pursues her lifelong passion for Biblical Literature, lecturing in churches and other venues. Through unfolding the Bible’s ancient stories, histories, and poems, she invites listeners into an astonishing world of human and divine drama. Most Sunday mornings, you’ll find her at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Edina, MN, where she teaches Compass, her Adult Formation class on the Jewish and Christian Scriptures.

Her new book Dragon Slayers: The Essential Training Guide for Young Dragon Fighters, Based Wholly on the Practices of the Great Dragon Slayers of Old and the Wisdom of their Ancient Manual (coming May 6, 2025, by Paraclete Press) introduces kids to Christian faith through an imaginative world of dragons and Dragon Slayers, told by a fictitious (and cranky!) narrator, Sir Wyvern Pugilist. Under Sir Wyvern’s tutelage, children learn to courageously face the fears, temptations, and inevitable obstacles that confront them in this Land of Dragons. Through Pugilist’s urgent voice (both serious and humorous), we hear Joyce Denham’s own concern for today’s children and the problems with which they wrestle. In short, while creating fun, she takes kids seriously.

Joyce lives with her husband, Pete, in Minneapolis, MN, dividing her time between lecturing, writing, leading spiritual retreats, and planning pilgrimage tours to monastic sites in England and Scotland.