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What traces of Christian spirituality are to be found in literature intended for children and youth today? Broaching this question from a reception-critical stance, the author suggests that only readers knowledgeable about the Christian tradition are likely to find evidence of its spirituality in the books they read. Moving on to a consideration of the choice of narrative by the nascent church as the privileged vehicle for handing on its faith, the article intends to establish links within the reading event between the experience of interpretive freedom and the emergence of spiritual effects. Such spiritual effects may be understood as an expression of the reader’s quest for inner liberation. The article brings its brief exploration of the links between spirituality and interpretive freedom to a close with an examination of the hermeneutical significance of interpretive errors which may give rise to unexpected but welcome insights.