Choosing Good Literature

by

Debbie W. Wilson

As home schoolers, most of us want to use every tool possible to build good character in our children and prepare them for the future. Literature helps us do that by providing examples of life and death, good and bad choices, courage and cowardice, right and wrong.

Good literature develops moral imagination. It helps us put ourselves in someone else's predicament, to realize the consequences of actions without committing the mistakes. For instance, when little Em'ly in David Copperfield yields to the flatteries of wealthy and handsome James Steerforth, we learn the destructiveness of fornication and the beauty of forgiveness.

Well-drawn characters help us understand more about human interaction and motivation. . In Treasure Island we are not surprised that Long John Silver abandons his fellow pirates to save himself because of Stevenson's characterization of him as a sly rogue who protects himself.

It allows us to empathize with others, to understand what they might be thinking and feeling, to better learn how to fulfill the Golden Rule. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry teaches us what it felt like to be a black child in the South during the early twentieth century. We feel the mud spattered on our clean school clothes as we scramble out of the way of the white children's bus and the humiliation of being thrown off the sidewalk for being in the way of "Miss" Lillian Jean.

Reading literature gives us a fresh perspective on history and draws us into it. Harriet Beecher Stowe's portrayal of slavery so moved the nation that President Lincoln credited her with starting the Civil War and several Southern states banned the book. During one performance of Uncle Tom's Cabin, the most popular play of the nineteenth century, a cowboy became so enraged at the dogs chasing Eliza onto the ice that he shot one of them!

Good literature also increases our vocabulary and enhances our ability to "hear" good writing. A child who hears literature read to him and reads widely will intuitively develop good grammar before being taught it.

With all the literature available, as parents we must be careful of what we allow our children to read. Some elements in society would allow children to read or view whatever they wish, but we are told in Psalm 101:3: "I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me." The viewing, reading, or hearing of the glorification of evil weakens our resolve to not turn aside from what is right. From this perspective choosing literature becomes important.

Finding Good Literature. Many books written for young people today glorify romantic relationships among children, sin, and the supernatural. They assume a sordid view of family relationships and an elevated view of peer relationships. The judgment of sin is treated as intolerance, bigotry, hypocrisy, and injustice.

To find good books, we should follow several steps.

We should look over books before our children read them. If we are unfamiliar with an author, we should skim the book.

Books, such as Jim Trelease's The Read-Aloud Handbook, Gladys Hunt's Honey for a Child's Heart, and A Family Program for Reading Aloud by Rosalie June Slater, provide annotated bibliographies, short descriptions, of books they recommend. These bibliographies can help us decide about books that we are unfamiliar with.

Friends, family, and catalogs from respected companies can recommend other possible books for children. Do not hesitate to return books you have ordered and find unacceptable. Sometimes even Christian publishers publish stories with unacceptable elements.

On my trust of a particular publisher, I bought a book for my son's birthday without first reading it. When we read it aloud, we found an assumption of evolution, out-of-body experiences, a Communion using drugs, and New Age meditation techniques. We later read that the author had also written a blatantly New Age book.

When you do find problems in something you or your child reads, discuss those problems. These discussions provide opportunities to share Biblical values. Because fascinating characters in difficult situations can lead children to soften what they believe, we need to explain that an author purposely shapes characters and situations to influence the reader in the direction he desires. For instance, the author may imply that if Charlie is hungry, his mother is sick, and his father has abandoned the family, it is understandable that he steals. What choice does he have?

Evaluating Literature for Your Child.

Is it age appropriate? C. S. Lewis believed that a good story can be enjoyed at any age. Being an adult before I read my first Winnie-the-Pooh story, I would have to agree. However, the teenager who limits himself to Winnie-the-Pooh misses Tom Sawyer, Aslet, David Copperfield, and Corrie Ten Boom. He limits his knowledge and emotional growth.

On the other hand, a young child who always reads or hears adult fiction is deprived of some of the answers to childhood dilemmas, such as Ira's problem in Ira Sleeps Over by Bernard Waber. Ira wonders if his friend will make fun of him for sleeping with his teddy bear. Should he take his teddy bear to his friend's house? How old is too old for a teddy bear? What will he do if his friend laughs at him?

Is it emotionally appropriate? Sometimes in choosing a book, we have to consider the circumstances in the family. If a child has gone through a traumatic situation, such as a severe illness in the family, the death of a loved one, moving from home, or a divorce, he may find reading about a similar situation helpful of hurtful. Choose with the child's emotional strengths and weaknesses in mind. If a book he reads upsets him, talk with him about why it upset him. Though the reason may seem silly to you, try to see it through his eyes. His fears are real to him.

Is the writing done well? Good writing is varied in sentence structure, even in children's books. Too many simple sentences chop up the flow: "See Spot run. Spot runs fast. I run fast, too."

Too many complex sentences, replete with phrases and subordinate clauses, bog the reader down, confusing him, making him question what the writer's main point was, and when he would get to it, as you are wondering about this one. We had this problem when we read Thucydides in ancient history. The length and structure of his sentences distracted from what he said.

Good writing provides variety. The flow of the writing is so unobtrusive that it does not detract from the meaning. Simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences provide a good rhythm without drawing attention to themselves.

In wording also, look for diversity. Using one word too often draws the attention to the overused word and away from the meaning.

Is it morally appropriate? Most of us do not begin teaching our children the Bible with stories of Ehud or Bathsheba. We do not find these appropriate for a young child. Instead we teach of God's creating the world, Adam and Eve, Noah's ark, David and Goliath, and the birth of Jesus. When our youngsters mature, we will find it necessary to explain the sins of otherwise great men, such as David and Noah.

Unfortunately, much literature written for children deals with the sinful side of life: broken homes, adulterous relationships, drunkenness, drug abuse, and child abuse. In deciding whether or not to allow your child to read of these sins and problems, take into account your child's maturity and circumstances, and the author's assumptions toward the sin and sinner. Is the sin okay because everyone does it? Is it treated as wrong? Is it punished or excused? Is the sinner a hero for bucking society's "imposed values" or does he suffer for his sin and change?

How do we deal with objectionable elements? This brings us to another question: What do we do about sex, violence, and bad language? Total rejection of sin prevents us from reading some valuable true accounts, as well as literature by Hawthorne, Twain, Shakespeare, Cooper, and Stevenson. Total acceptance of sin opens our children to pornographic or slasher accounts.

To prevent either extreme, we evaluate literature by asking several questions.

1. How is sin treated? Is it glorified or condemned? In The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom and The Doctor and the Damned by Doctor Albert Haas, both autobiographical accounts of the Nazi prison camps, we encounter nudity, brutality, and murder. Yet, neither account glorifies the evil. Instead, they show us the evil to acquaint us also with courage and the struggle to do right.

2. Is the sin graphic? Is the portrayal of the sin described to titillate? The Nazis' actions in the above accounts are described thoroughly enough to evoke our sympathy with the victims. When Dr. Haas describes the "rabbit hunts," we feel his terror and his condemnation of the act. He does not describe these Nazi shootings in a way that gives us pleasure and makes us want to terrify someone in the same way.

3. Is the sin necessary to the story? During the 1960s and 1970s, many writers began to include sexually or violently explicit scenes in their writing because the critics praised them. Often these scenes had nothing or little to do with the plot, and the characters might not appear again. The scene occurred for the sake of the sex or violence.

In contrast, look at the account of Absalom's rebellion against David. To understand the rebellion, we need to consider the events leading to it. Would Absalom have rebelled against his father if their relationship had not been strained over Absalom's killing of his half-brother Amnon for the rape of his sister Tamar? If David had punished Amnon, perhaps Absalom would not have rebelled, but David, having committed adultery with Bathsheba, did not punish the sexual sin of his son. God could have left the accounts of David and Bathsheba and Amnon and Tamar out of the Bible, but we would not have understood the horrible consequences of sin so well.

In Dr. Haas's and Corrie Ten Boom's books also, they could have merely said, "The Nazis were mean." But if they had, we would not have understood why Corrie found it so hard to forgive the cruel Nazi guard who later came to her meeting. We would not have realized the power of God's grace.

In other words, sometimes the evil has to be described in a story because it is necessary to the story's events and to the very meaning of the story. Saying that millions of Jews died in the Nazi prison camps does not penetrate our hearts the way going through the prison camps with one Jew, Dr. Haas, does.

Can I trust the classics? Calling a book a classic means that it is still being read years later. It does not mean that you can automatically trust that story's morals. For instance, The Three Musketeers is filled with casual acceptance of fornication. The early film version cleaned up the story.

Another example is Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn in which Twain showcased his cynicism. The "Christians" keep slaves. The "Christians" feud and kill each other. Huck decides he would prefer to go to hell rather than allow Jim to return to slavery.

Twain leaves the reader no question about what he thought of Christians.

Literature entertains. It instructs and shapes us. Well-chosen literature can build our children's faith, but we must carefully evaluate it, or it can also undermine their faith. We evaluate it by considering whether it is appropriate for our child's age and maturity, how well it is written, and how it treats sin.

(Copyright 1998, Debbie W. Wilson)