Harry Potter books

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Lucky_Scrunchy

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I asked that my son’s third grade teacher to prevent him from reading any of the Potter books and was wondering if there were any other books (besides Narnia and Tokien) that are at that same level, without the occult stuff. I would love to hear some suggestions!

Thank you in advance!
 
fgh_123 said:
Okay I’ll bite.

Whats wrong with Harry Potter?
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You beat me to it!

Anyways, I guess I don’t know any Harry Potter substitutes other than listed… But whats the difference between LOTR and Potter? There are wizards and magic in LOTR?

It is up to you as a parent, but IMHO I only think that stuff is dangerous of the person is not well grounded in the first place.
 
Oh, boy. The opinions that you will get on this subject will vary widely, especially considering that the church hasn’t said definitively whether the books actually do have occult themes.

That being said, I’m not sure about substitutes. But I’m sure this thread will get interesting.
 
Irish_Eyes_826 said:
🍿
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yep. BOOM. I’ll sit back and watch this one with you, because I played devil’s advocate before and it turned into 8 pages of two of us talking rationally about theological constructs, trying to talk over the noise of dozens going (NOOO/ YESSSSS they haz wands an stuffs!)
🍿
 
OP, I strongly encourage you to remove any reference to Harry Potter in this thread, else it will become yet another endless argument.

Your question is about positive books for kids, so I politely suggest renaming the thread as something like that.
 
fgh_123 said:
Okay I’ll bite.

Whats wrong with Harry Potter?
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Please don’t… For the OP’s sake, and for what she really wanted advice on, if this turns into another Harry Potter - evil thread, answers to her question will get lost in the mix.
 
If I were you I would just be grateful that my kid is reading.
 
Let me try another tack: I don’t think a teacher should be put into the position of censoring or otherwise controlling what legitimate books (i.e., not porn obviously) that a child may read during free reading time at school. If the parent feels strongly about a specific book, that direction and rule-setting should come from home and the parent, and not put the teacher in the role of reading police.
 
Tarpeian_Rock said:
Let me try another tack: I don’t think a teacher should be put into the position of censoring or otherwise controlling what legitimate books (i.e., not porn obviously) that a child may read during free reading time at school. If the parent feels strongly about a specific book, that direction and rule-setting should come from home and the parent, and not put the teacher in the role of reading police.
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👍

Agreed! Teachers already have so many responsibilities and duties, and it is not an easy job. Having every parent come in with a list of legitimate books that they want kept away from their child would be nothing short of a nightmare for the teacher. And of course, the teacher is going to screw up eventually keeping it all straight, and then a parent is going to complain when their child was exposed to whatever book it is that they wanted kept away."
 
This topic has been covered ad infinitum. Michelle Arnold made the following comment sometime ago:

“Re: Has the Church given direction about reading the Harry Potter books?
No, it has not because it is not the Church’s function to be a literary critic. There are clergymen who have regrettably chosen to pontificate on this issue, giving the faithful the impression that the Harry Potter books are condemned by the Church, but these clergymen are giving their own opinion on the matter and do not speak for the Church in this area.”

I personally like Harry Potter, but it’s really a matter of parental judgement, not Church doctrine. At one time similar questions were raised about C.S. Lewis’s children’s stories. Lewis, of course, was one of the premier Christian apologists of the 20th Century.
 
There is nothing wrong with Harry Potter it’s actually a very Christian message much like most of CS Lewis’ works. Don’t listen to the protestant fundies who continually look for the devil in everything rather than focusing on Christ and find His message.

Harry Potter, the series, is about sacrifice, faithfulness, friendship and how our actions actually matter… all in all a pretty Catholic series IMHO.

Tolkien, Lewis, as other have pointed out, have pretty much the same themes just a different story. Think of Star Wars? Do you have a problem with that? It’s almost the same story as HP… orphaned boy meets aging Wizard (call a Jedi) who helps him fight off an evil wizard (Vader called a Sith) to eventually become a great wizard himself by choosing good over evil to save his friends and the galaxy (rather than a wizarding world).

These are myths that run throughout human history in pretty much every single culture. The Protestants who are freakin’ about HP and have made the biggest stir over the year are the same people who usually say Catholic’s are going to hell because they don’t understand the Church or God’s greater message for humanity so that they could recognize Christ.

Those people say that because we have statues and see a greater place for Mary that we resemble an Isis / Osiris cult. What they ignore how the OT talks about Bathsheba’s place in Solomon’s empire. They tend to say because we ask members of the Mystical Body of Christ (the Saints who are alive - remember Christ said we will never die) that we are breaking OT rules regarding idols and contacting the dead. They fail to note that God told Moses to put “things from Heaven” on the Ark just a few chapters after the 10 commandments and they obviously ignore Christ’s message about Christians not being “dead” spiritually after their body passes. They also fail to see that God enabled Pagans to find the Christ Child while the leader of the Jewish state could not… because the pagan’s were looking for the truth and he, Harrod, was not but rather filled with greed and paranoia (much like Voldermort in HP or the Emperor / Vader in Star Wars)…

Many people fear what they don’t understand, it’s often much easier to bask in ignorance than do research and try to understand the greater picture. God has a plan for humanity and He has laid clues to the Truth of the Christ’s message and the Church throughout human history. I would encourage the OP, and others, to embrace the beauty and glory of that rather than to fear it… and that includes modern day examples of it, like HP, as well.

Joe
 
Lucky_Scrunchy said:
I asked that my son’s third grade teacher to prevent him from reading any of the Potter books and was wondering if there were any other books (besides Narnia and Tokien) that are at that same level, without the occult stuff. I would love to hear some suggestions!

Thank you in advance!
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Hello, Lucky Scrunchy. I’m glad that you feel comfortable enough asking your son’s teacher to prevent him from reading any of the Harry Potter books, and that you are monitoring your child’s reading material, since the books children read have tremendous power to shape their morality.

As to your question, I would definitely agree with giving your son the Narnia books to read if he wasn’t read them, because that series is exciting, filled with great characters, and contains wonderful Christian themes. I might suggest that you not have your son read Tolkien yet (expect possibly the Hobbit) not because the books contain inappropriate themes, but simply because Lord of the Rings is an adult series in terms of reading level, and I simply don’t think that the average third grader would understand it too well or enjoy the experience much. I would suggest that you give your son Lord of the Rings in middle school or high school depending on his reading level.

A fantasy series (which draws heavily on Greco-Roman mythology, just so you know) that your son might enjoy are Percy Jackson books. Your son also might like the Hardy Boys, Tuck Everlasting, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminister Boy, books by Scott O’Dell, and A Single Shard, although these aren’t fantasy books. Hopefully, some of these suggestions will be useful to you. God bless you.
 
Havard said:
OP, I strongly encourage you to remove any reference to Harry Potter in this thread, else it will become yet another endless argument.

Your question is about positive books for kids, so I politely suggest renaming the thread as something like that.
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I think it’s probably too late for the OP to change the thread title.

You’re right, though, she’s really just asking for advice on books like Narnia and LotR (but not Harry Potter). There’s no reason to get into the Potter debate again.

My advice to the OP would be to pick up Michael O’Brien’s book “A Landscape With Dragons”. It’s a non-fiction book about children’s fiction. It has a very extensive reading list for various ages and genres. The book is over 10 years old now (so it won’t have anything from the past ten years), but I think you would find a lot of great suggestions for your son.

Plus, Michael O’Brien agrees with you about Harry Potter being “occultish”, so you have nothing to fear about his suggestions offending your sensibilities. 😉
 
If this is for school reading, it would be helpful to see the reading list that the school provides.
 
Here we go again!🍿
Personally, as someone who is learning to become a teacher, I personally believe censorship of age appropriate books is wrong, but respect your right as a parent in this matter, as long as you don’t try to force this on the rest of the class. The Percy Jackson books are good reads, and are on the same level as HP, but deal with Classical Mythology, so I will leave it up to you if they are appropriate for your son.
 
Lucky:

I have a daughter who loves, loves, loves to read. I actually have to threaten her–stop reading now and do… Since she is a girl she has read more “girly” books(American Girl, Nancy Drew, etc.) so I don’t have any specific suggestions. I homeschool so it is easy to find lists of age/grade appropriate books from book providers/schools. My daughter loved Children’s Homer(The Odyssey) if he likes ancient history lots of action for a boy, stories of saints are filled with action and adventure as well!! Try Kolbe Academy(go to the catalog and then grade level), Mother of Divine Grace, Emmanuel Books, Catholic Heritage Curricula, Seton…there are so many but that may be a good place to start. There are tons of great books out there.
I am sure that Harry Potter can easily be avoided without permanently damaging your son!! It is each parents decision on what he or she wants their child to read and when!! My daughters did not read those books and are intelligent and well-adjusted!! My oldest daughter is an A student in college. I mainly avoided them because there was so much controversy and did not have any desire to read or research them. So my aversion to them has no bias either way. I have catholic friends whose kids read them and I still talk to them and let my children visit with:D!!

Hope you are doing okay…:hug3:
chris
 
I encourage all Catholic parents of school-age or soon-to-be school-age children to read "The Mystery of Harry Potter: A Catholic Family Guide ", authored by Nancy Carpentier Brown, a Catholic homeschooling mom who also wrote the Father Brown Readers from Catholic Heritage Curricula (a homeschool curriculum provider we use in our family).

For any Catholic that has concerns about HP, the book gives a balanced and hysteria-free look at HP and how to discern if it’s a good choice for your family and your children. I’m sure there are people out there who have read it and still think HP’s not a good choice for their family, but it gives a Catholic view of the series ( and the movies that were out when it was published) so that parents can make an educated choice for their own families.

Here’s a link to OSV’s page (they publish it, although it’s available via many online sources): osv.com/BooksNav/OSVBookandProductsInformation/TheMysteryofHarryPotter/tabid/3880/Default.aspx

If after reading it, you still are confident that the books will not be included in your children’s personal library, I think you’ll feel a little better about having a balanced approach to it yourself and be able to see that it’s not the “evil witchcraft promoting books” some misinformed folks make it out to be.
 
Joe_5859 said:
I think it’s probably too late for the OP to change the thread title.

You’re right, though, she’s really just asking for advice on books like Narnia and LotR (but not Harry Potter). There’s no reason to get into the Potter debate again.

My advice to the OP would be to pick up Michael O’Brien’s book “A Landscape With Dragons”. It’s a non-fiction book about children’s fiction. It has a very extensive reading list for various ages and genres. The book is over 10 years old now (so it won’t have anything from the past ten years), but I think you would find a lot of great suggestions for your son.

Plus, Michael O’Brien agrees with you about Harry Potter being “occultish”, so you have nothing to fear about his suggestions offending your sensibilities. 😉
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I LOVE Michael O’Brian’s fictional works (and have a signed copy of one of his books- he’s a wonderful person), but I do disagree with his personal take on Harry Potter. I suggested in another post on this thread (actually the post just before this one) a great book (by a Catholic homeschooling mom) that takes a deep look into HP books (and the movies) and it’s a more balanced approach than what Mr. O’Brien provides. I have “A Landscape With Dragons” also, and it has a great book list in it that includes fantasy fiction choices other than HP. But I still disagree with O’Brien’s take on Harry 😉
 
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