Those are some good ones. By fourth or fifth grade, the kids are also ready to handle the “Little House” books (Laura Ingalls Wilder apparently told the stories but didn’t write them herself, but whatever…they’re good stories that stretch the kids’ reading abilities).
Also, the Scott O’dell books, particularly Island of the Blue Dolphins.
I don’t hesitate to push books that are less action-packed (and are often criticized as ‘boring’) they are often reflective and deep, and teach a child to be attentive and interested in important things–to find the drama in human experiences even when they aren’t presented as exciting and emotionally stimulating.
As an English teacher, I have to say something about Judy Blume. My secular colleagues love her. She tells kids about contemporary social realities (family conflict and such), and writes with humor.
I initially had trouble figuring out what bothered me about her. Now I know it’s this: as you read book after book, moving on to her stuff that is for teens, you find her philosophy about children, relationships, sex, etc. (she has made it well known in her public comments) very apparent in her books.
It’s a philosophy which I as a parent will not allow to be whispered to my kids behind my back. She is of the same opinion about sex that Planned Parenthood has: the only bad sex is forced sex. Children should be allowed to find their own values early on–not be told what is right by their parents. (I believe it is in Forever that it’s clear that the girl character’s parents are wrong in denying her birth control–she has to do it behind their backs.)
Even in her stories for younger kids, I had a problem I couldn’t articulate at first. She’ll go the whole story with a kid who resents his new baby brother–some humor of course–and then…that’s it! That’s all–nothing horrible in it (nothing virtuous either), just a nagging feeling that it was a story about mild self-centeredness, with no tone suggesting that such selfishness ought to be resisted.
As I was forming these opinions, I was very aware that I could be making a big deal out of nothing. What’s the harm in a funny story about how kids really are? They don’t all have to be preachy, do they? But you see, as you get more into her (as my kids get “turned on to Judy Blume,” they get nothing but this theme–by the time they’ve got to the Forever nonsense, they’ve got a good dose of a family/relationship philosophy that has nothing to do with selflessness, other-centeredness, and self-sacrifice. Imagine that; it’s like writing about airplanes without bringing up the fact that they fly.
To sum it up, Blume tells our kids things which, if you caught a grownup saying to them in your living room, would cause you to kick them out of your house. Since they’re being told in a book, what I’m saying is condemned as “censorship.” Blume screams loudest when it comes to that, which gives you and me an idea of where she’s coming from…
She proudly supported the production of the play “Corpus Christi” which portrayed a gay Christ. Judy Blume was indignant that people wanted to stop it. She also loudly and proudly supported the dung-splattered picture of the Madonna in the infamous New York art exhibit. She’s anti-Christian.
Books, like art and music, can be uplifting to the soul–ennobling. If they have this power, it follows that they also have the power to degrade and debase.
Hope I didn’t go on too long. Thoughts?
Peace.
John
