The Tennis Shoes Adventure Series is a series of LDS fiction novels written by Chris Heimerdinger. They are most widely read by young adult members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Titles

There are thirteen books in the series so far, with the fourteenth anticipated to be released in the near future:

General synopses

The main characters of the series are Jim Hawkins, his sister Jenny Hawkins and Garth Plimpton, and later, their family members and friends. The novels involve people from modern times being transported to the past (at various times and locations described in the Standard Works) by means of a cave in Wyoming called "Frost Cave" (a real cave on the Spirit Mountain in Cody, Wyoming) in the United States. They feature both Book of Mormon and Bible themes. The first four books feature Jim Hawkins as the main character: first as a teenager, then as a young man in college, and in the third and fourth as a father of three children.

Characters

Protagonists

Antagonists

• People from LDS Church standard works who appear in the series. † Characters based on other historical records.

Thorns of Glory and Zarahemla books

In an interview included in The Passage to Zarahemla DVD, Heimerdinger said that volume 11 would likely be published in 2009 and would be called Thorns of Glory. In an announcement published on his official blog on November 22, 2009, however, Heimerdinger said that because of the complexities involved with the book he is currently writing, there will likely be two more volumes in the current adventure. Heimerdinger said that tentative plans are for book 11 (Sorcerers and Seers) to be published in early fall in 2010, with volume 12 (more appropriately named Thorns of Glory) to be published 6–12 months after book 11. Later in his official blog, Heimerdinger said that he had submitted the draft to his publisher, and he didn't know how far into the editing process they are. He did say, however, that "as of now the publisher's plan is to release the book this fall — September, if I understood them correctly. Things can change, but as of now, that's the intent." In even later blog posts, Heimerdinger stated that the story had gotten even more complex and would culminate in combining the Tennis Shoes Adventure Series with his Passage to Zarahemla series. The volume uniting the two series was Passage's sequel, Escape From Zarahemla. Future Heimernovels will serve as sequels to both series. In 2013, Heimerdinger posted that "For months I've told fans that the new Tennis Shoes book would be called Thorns of Glory. Most know that this book is long enough that my publisher will likely divide it into two books. I've presumed it would be Thorns of Glory Part 1 and Thorns of Glory Part 2, sort of like the Feathered Serpent books. HOWEVER, I think I've come up with a better title for the first of these 2 books: Drums of Desolation. Let me know what you think. Just know that Book 13 is likely still called Thorns of Glory." Subsequent posts confirmed that Drums of Desolation would indeed be the title of the next book. It was released on October 1, 2014, though an option to pre-order from Heimerdinger himself was immediately available. There was a period of 6 years between Book 12, and Book 13. In a 2020 podcast, Chris says he hadn't started writing the Book 14 yet but that he wants to release it much faster.