Submission Guidelines for Our Little Friend® / Primary Treasure®
Our Little Friend (started in 1890) and Primary Treasure (established in 1957) are written for children ages 1 to 5 and 6 to 9. We use true stories to help children understand their infinite worth to Jesus and show love to others.
Thank you for partnering with us to minister to our precious children!
General Guidelines
1. Pray about your work
Invite the Holy Spirit to be part of the writing process from beginning to end.
2. Center a Christian message
Write from a Christian perspective consistent with Seventh-day Adventist beliefs and practices. Include a spiritual, character-building message without being preachy.
3. Write true stories
All stories submitted to us must be true. The people you write about really live (or did live), they faced the problem you say they faced, and they solved the problem the way you say they solved it. Conversation can be altered to carry the story. Names and gender can be changed in your true story.
4. Be positive
We want stories about children setting good examples, being kind, and making the right choices. Occasionally, we use stories about children misbehaving, but these should also direct the mind and heart to what is good and right.
5. Write for the right age group
Our Little Friend is for children ages one to five (through kindergarten). Primary Treasure is for children ages seven to nine (first through fourth grades). We aim for a third-grade reading level. Stories for both magazines should use simple words, uncomplicated and straightforward sentences, and minimal description. Story plots, vocabulary, and main characters should be appropriate for the reader.
6. Show, don’t tell
Tell your story with action, dialog, and word pictures. Use your best short-story techniques. Include humor where appropriate.
7. Write for today’s child
We look for stories that reflect the diversity of our readers and their circumstances. Consider adjusting the setting of your story to speak to the experience, lifestyle, needs, and vocabulary of today’s child. That might include living in a single-parent home or a home where both parents work outside the home, going to a day care center or babysitter, or being a “latchkey” child. It may also include non-stereotypical roles for men and women.
8. Manage your story’s length
Our Little Friend: 350 to 500 words (one to two manuscript pages, double spaced)
Primary Treasure: 800 to 1000 words (three to four manuscript pages, double spaced)
9. Submit unique material
We buy the first rights to print the material you wrote. This means that we accept:
- Material that has not been published before. If you wish to submit your material elsewhere, please wait to hear from us first.
- Material that does not belong to anyone else. If anyone else could reasonably claim to have developed the material or own the rights to publish it, please do not submit it.
- Material created without the help of artificial intelligence (AI).
- Material that has not been plagiarized. Please include any sources you used to develop your material.
Suggested Story Topics
The Alive in Jesus Curriculum
Our Little Friend and Primary Treasure are designed to work in harmony with the Alive in Jesus Sabbath School curriculum. Our Little Friend works with the Beginner and Kindergarten lessons, and Primary Treasure works with the Primary lessons.
To see what your target audience is learning, look at the Scope and Sequence for their age group.
Beginner: https://beginner.aliveinjesus.info/teachers
Kindergarten: https://kindergarten.aliveinjesus.info/
Primary: https://primary.aliveinjesus.info/
Alive in Jesus Theme Words in Production: October to December 2025
| Our Little Friend | Primary Treasure |
| Kindness | Confidence |
| Honest | Truthful |
| Confident | Forgiveness |
| Best | Steadfast |
| Peace | Peace |
| Care | Precious |
| Courage | Trustworthy |
| Choose | Honor |
| Amazing | Character |
| Supply | Opportunity |
| Guide | Providence |
| Shine | Commitment |
| Welcome | Notice |
Adventist Themes
We publish uniquely Adventist stories. We accept stories that reflect the Adventist lifestyle and beliefs. In particular, we look for stories connected to Adventist history, education, health, and mission service. These stories should also reflect how these Adventist beliefs show us how much God loves us.
https://www.nadadventist.org/about-our-church/beliefs
Seasonal and Holiday Themes
We publish stories for each season: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. We also accept stories about Christmas, Thanksgiving, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and Grandparents’ Day.
We must receive holiday and seasonal stories approximately eight months in advance. If you choose to write a holiday story, please de-emphasize the holiday’s commercial aspects.
Nature Themes
We look for nature stories that glorify God as the Creator and Sustainer of all life. We prefer stories that are more than an encyclopedic description. Kids should be able to say, “I never knew that before!” when reading your nature story.
Character Development Themes
Our Little Friend and Primary Treasure publish age-appropriate stories designed to help children grow. We seek stories that help children face life’s challenges with wisdom and faith. Such stories may include:
Spiritual Development
- Trusting God and the Bible as God’s Word
- Praying (and accepting when He answers with “No” or “Wait”)
- Understanding your worth in God’s eyes
- Having assurance of salvation
- Understanding how God’s love changes your life
- Learning practical ways to live out faith (such as keeping the Sabbath, maintaining personal devotions, worshiping God, resisting temptation, witnessing)
https://family.adventist.org/serving-up-milk-honey-nurturing-your-childs-spiritual-development
Healthy Habits
- Choice: Taking responsibility for your actions and attitude
- Rest: Getting enough sleep/respecting bedtime, making time to relax
- Environment: Keeping your space clean and orderly, spending time in nature
- Activity: Exercising the mind and body
- Trust: Keeping faith in God and in healthy beliefs
- Interpersonal relationships: Developing positive relationships with family and friends
- Outlook: Maintaining a positive attitude, looking for the good
- Nutrition: Eating healthy food, drinking water, and avoiding unhealthy things
https://www.adventhealth.com/creation-life
Social-Emotional Skills
- Self-awareness
- Understanding your emotions
- Coping with negative emotions
- Noticing the effects of your choices
- Self-management
- Developing inner motivation
- Dealing with stress
- Sticking with a difficult task
- Social awareness
- Treating others with empathy
- Looking at a situation from someone else’s perspective
- Understanding manners
- Relationship Skills
- Communicating effectively with others
- Working together to solve problems
- Dealing with relationship difficulties
- Responsible decision making
- Finding solutions for a problem
- Developing honesty, integrity, and fairness
- Making good choices
https://www.positiveaction.net/blog/sel-competencies
The Editing Process
Things we always change
Food and Drink
- Unhealthy snacks are changed to fruit or raw vegetables.
- Drinks between meals are changed to water or fruit juice.
- Unhealthy foods are replaced with something healthier.
- Meat dishes are changed to vegetarian dishes.
Adventist Beliefs and Practices
Anything that conflicts with Adventist beliefs and practices will be adjusted to reflect Adventist teachings.
- Attending church on Sunday is changed to attending on Sabbath (Saturday).
- “I bet” is changed to “I’m sure.”
Child Safety
- Unsupervised children are changed to children with supervision nearby.
- Stories about situations requiring safety equipment (such as helmets, seat belts, or booster seats) will be edited to include it.
Things we sometimes change
We try to reflect the rich diversity of our readership in the United States and Canada in our content. To support this goal, we may sometimes change the gender, name, and ethnicity of a character. Please let us know if these details are essential for your story in your cover letter or email.
Things we don’t accept
- Stories of talking animals or other kinds of fantasy stories
- Stories about hunting
- Stories with a Halloween setting
- Rewritten Bible stories
- Queries (except for multi-part stories)
- Poetry
- Games/puzzles
- Art and photographs
Submitting Your Story
How should your manuscript look?
Put your name, address, telephone number, and email address on the manuscript’s first page. Title pages are unnecessary.
Manuscripts should be double-spaced with no extra space between paragraphs.
Paragraphs should begin with an indented line. Please indent using your word processor’s “paragraph” tools or ruler.
Instructions for mailed submissions
If you mail your submission to us, include a self-addressed, stamped envelope large enough to hold your manuscript.
Mail your story to the managing editor:
Janelle Sundin
Our Little Friend®/ Primary Treasure®
P.O. Box 5353, Nampa, ID 83653
Instructions for electronic submissions
We prefer to receive stories electronically.
Attach a Word document file of your story to your email message. Do not paste your story into the email itself.
Please save the file using a .doc or .rtf extension.
Send electronic submissions to the managing editor:
Janelle Sundin
janelle.sundin@pacificpress.com
Payment and rights
We pay between $25 and $50 for an Our Little Friend or Primary Treasure story, depending on the excellence of the manuscript, its length, and other editorial considerations. We purchase one-time magazine rights and electronic rights, except for previously published material, and we pay upon acceptance.
If you are a new author, you must submit a W9 form and a publication agreement so that we can process your payment. We will contact you with the proper forms when your story is accepted.
We also reprint stories after four or five years. We try to contact the authors of these older stories to pay them again at half the first rate, so tell us if you move. We prefer that you not submit reprints to us. It works better if you let us choose the reprints—we stay more organized that way!
When will you hear back?
We do our best to evaluate submissions within four weeks of receiving them. If your submission is accepted, you will receive payment soon. However, your story may not be used immediately due to seasonal considerations.
When your story is printed, we will mail you three author copies.