And are you ready for another author? I think you'd like Zenna Henderson, one of the great unacknowledged sf authors of our time. Strongly spiritual throughout, and The People, her best-known folk, are very religious. And she writes a lot about teachers, and kids. She's one of the first female science fiction writers who wrote in the modern era, and she never hid behind a man's pseudonym or a man's writing style. She writes like a woman, and by that I don't mean girly, or frilly --- some of her characters are as tough as nails. Some are scary crazy, and some, like Serena, are very brave.
"Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?"
Her stories --- especially that one --- move me.