Inappropriate books for Children to read?

[Sir_Knight]

My soon to be 5th grade daughter was given her summer reading assignments and one of the books on the list is “Hatchet” by Gary Paulsen.

The book is about a boy of divorced parents; who saw his mother kissing another man; does not believe in God; and does not know how to pray; consider suicide; survives in the wilderness not based on his faith or what his parents taught him or what his school has taught him but from what he watched on TV.

I, personally, do not think that this an appropriate book for 10-year old to be reading in a Catholic grammar school? I feel that there is enough negative influence in our children’s lives and something which stressed Catholic / Christian values would have been more appropriate.

I would be interested in the opinions of other folks here and if this should be brought up with the Principal or Pastor?

 

[dashso40]

It does sound inappropriate for a 10 year old…especially at a Catholic school…I would speak to the principle or teacher…I think 10 years old is young to read about that stuff…My son is 10 and they are very impressionable

 

[North_of_Nod]

It does sound inappropriate for a 10 year old…especially at a Catholic school…I would speak to the principle or teacher…I think 10 years old is young to read about that stuff…My son is 10 and they are very impressionable

I agree. I had to read this book in middle school, and I remember feeling quite depressed afterward. It was just very unsettling. Perhaps it would be a good idea to talk to your child about the book and explain why it is not a good example. Talking to the teacher and/or principal would probably be a good idea too.

 

[DebChris]

Hatchet is a Newbery Award winning book. It is quite appropriate for fifth graders to read. The reality is that your child will be entering a very secular world. Many families have been broken by divorce. The effects of divorce can be devastating on children. Despite the hero’s brokenness, he is able to use his natural resources to survive. The book provides your child one of many opportunities to develop higher order thinking skills.
Would you prevent him from reading classical mythology simply because it does not conform to our faith?
Toward the end of 5th grade, more students will be able to handle reading the Bronze Bow, also a Newbery Award winner in which the hero, an indentured servant, encounters the teachings of Christ.
Other books of interest for 5th graders, once school starts, include Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, set shortly after the Revolutionary War. The one drawback to this book is the advice his brother gives him (Boys don’t blubber) and The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.
As part of Cultural Literacy, expounded by ED Hirsch, you are going to want your child familiar with the same stories and books that his counterparts in public schools are also exposed. It will improve his ability to communicate with those outside his immediate circle. Hatchet is one of those books.

 

[Corki]

DebChris;5324415 } As part of Cultural Literacy, expounded by ED Hirsch, you are going to want your child familiar with the same stories and books that his counterparts in public schools are also exposed. It will improve his ability to communicate with those outside his immediate circle. Hatchet is one of those books.

I love ED Hirsch, but I have to disagree with your statement here. One of the reasons Catholic parents invest in a Catholic school education is to get something better than the “same stories and books that … conterparts in public schools” are reading.

Many of the Newberry award winning books are great examples of literature but may not be offered to children at an appropriate age. What a child is** able to read should not be the drivng force in what he should **read.

North of Nod said:

I agree. I had to read this book in middle school, and I remember feeling quite depressed afterward. It was just very unsettling.

There is no need for 5th graders, especially girls IMO, to be forced to read depressing books. Good literature lifts the spirit and nurtures the soul.

 

[North_of_Nod]

I love ED Hirsch, but I have to disagree with your statement here. One of the reasons Catholic parents invest in a Catholic school education is to get something better than the “same stories and books that … conterparts in public schools” are reading.

Many of the Newberry award winning books are great examples of literature but may not be offered to children at an appropriate age. What a child is** able to read should not be the drivng force in what he should **read.

There is no need for 5th graders, especially girls IMO, to be forced to read depressing books. Good literature lifts the spirit and nurtures the soul.

This is very true. I don’t think it should be required in a Catholic school.

 

[Blade_and_Blood]

I think it really depends on the child, whether that type of book is appropriate or not. Considering that your child was given a summer reading list… well, that kind of tells me that he is more advanced for his age… unless this reading list is assigned to all children.

On a side note, however, that sounds like a very interesting book. It’s definitely helpful to understand that not all books are “Catholic”-oriented. Even in a Catholic school, it’s crucial to have a diversity of genres and content for the sake of analyzing and interpreting in different ways. Sometimes, books like these can be interpreted religiously.

Ironically Yours, Blade and Blood

 

[IrishAm]

I always appreciated it when my children were assigned morally difficult books. In that environment, I was in a position to read along and discuss it with them, putting the story in context of our values and beliefs. It’s what we don’t know they are seeing or reading or listening to that causes difficulties . . .

 

[Cat]

I remember reading it a few years back and I can’t for the life of me remember being impressed.

My question is, why not a *better *book that has better writing and an intriguing storyline about a child, specifically a boy, who loses his parents due to evil influences, but manages to struggle and rise above it and become a hero? The book I’m thinking of is Little Men by Louisa May Alcott, and the character that I am thinking of is Dan. There are plenty of other fatherless and motherless boys in that book, and also a motherless girl (Nan). Obviously the book is not modern, but I’ve read it many dozens of times over the years, and find that the PRINCIPLES in the book are timeless. IMO, the book transcends time, which is a mark of its greatness. (Same for Little Women and Jo’s Boys.) Of course the writing is engaging, entertaining, and absolutely impeccable–Louisa May Alcott is one of the best American writers ever.

See if the teacher will agree to a compare and contrast–Hatchet for some kids, Little Men for others, and let the class decide which boy is more heroic.

There’s even a movie, although I read that it’s awful. But for kids and their parents who cheat and never read the assigned books in English class, at least the movie is around to help the kid pass the final exam! (Don’t laugh–other than Of Mice and Men, my younger daughter never read a single book assigned in English classes throughout high school–a rigorous, college-prep high school!–and she got straight As on the exams, a 34 on the ACT, and wrote lovely essays–not purloined from the web!–about those books that she never read. Not sure how she did it. She claims she just listened close to the teacher’s lectures.)

 

[DebChris]

I think it really depends on the child, whether that type of book is appropriate or not. Considering that your child was given a summer reading list… well, that kind of tells me that he is more advanced for his age… unless this reading list is assigned to all children.

On a side note, however, that sounds like a very interesting book. It’s definitely helpful to understand that not all books are “Catholic”-oriented. Even in a Catholic school, it’s crucial to have a diversity of genres and content for the sake of analyzing and interpreting in different ways. Sometimes, books like these can be interpreted religiously.

Ironically Yours, Blade and Blood

My grandson loved the book. I think he was in third or fourth grade when he read it. He made the choice himself. Of course he is a voracious reader anyway. He was reading before he started Kindergarten.
Stories that I was reading in the fourth grade included Robin Hood, Gulliver’s Travels, Robinson Crusoe and stories by Mark Twain such as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. I would include these books as well on the reading list.
While the older grandson did not care for Tom Sawyer, his little brother (not a voracious reader) really liked how Tom tricked his friends into whitewashing the fence.
The same grandson who enjoyed Hatchet also liked Call of the Wild.

I agree that it is crucial to read books with a diversity of genres and content. Hatchet has content to which many students can relate, especially when it comes to having divorced parents (unfortunately). At that age I would have preferred that story to the Edgar Allen Poe stories that I had to read. We want our children to learn to think for themselves.

I don’t get EWTN, but sometimes the local Christian TV station will show segments of Fulton Sheen. I remember one show in which he talked about the importance of being familiar with another person’s background. How can you talk to a Muslim, for instance, if you do not know what he believes? Simply saying “this is what the Bible teaches is not enough. The Muslim’s scripture is the Koran.”
My granddaughter liked reading White Swans, the story of a family that joined the Communist Revolution in China and suffered under the Mao’s Cultural Revolution. She likewise started reading early.

 

[KCT]

Are all the books on the list mandatory, or do you choose a certain number of titles to read?

 

[acadian]

I’ve read this book a couple of times on my own and another time with a class of 7th and 8th graders. I thought it was a great book. My only complaint was that the author seems to use 500 words when 50 would work just fine. I don’t remember him contemplating suicide or that the absensence of prayer and faith was a very important part of the story. But it has been a few years since I read it.

 

[Sir_Knight]

I don’t remember him contemplating suicide or that the absensence of prayer and faith was a very important part of the story. But it has been a few years since I read it.

I guess that it has been a while since you have last read it. Perhaps these quotes will refresh your memory …

• “He had settled into the gray funk deeper and still deeper until finally, in the dark, he had gone up on the ridge and taken the hatchet and tried to end it by cutting himself.”
• “There had been nothing for him then and he tried to become nothing but the cutting had been hard to do, impossible to do, and he had at least fallen to his side wishing for death, wishing for an end, and slept only didn’t sleep.”
• " … when he opened his eyes he saw the cuts on his arm, the dry blood turning black; he saw the blood and hated the blood, hated what he had done to himself … "

… not only does he THINK about killing himself but these passages seem to indicate that he ATTEMPTED to kill himself as well.

As for lack of prayer … “He thought of the pilot, still in the plane and that brought a shiver and massive sadness that seemed to settle on him like a weight and he thought that he should say or do something for the pilot, some words but he didn’t know any of the right words, the religious words.”

And while the book is certainly filled with “perseverance”, “faith” is something entirely different and no where to be found.

 

[Sir_Knight]

Are all the books on the list mandatory, or do you choose a certain number of titles to read?

Yes, mandatory list.

 

[Sir_Knight]

I don’t get EWTN, but sometimes the local Christian TV station will show segments of Fulton Sheen. I remember one show in which he talked about the importance of being familiar with another person’s background. How can you talk to a Muslim, for instance, if you do not know what he believes? Simply saying “this is what the Bible teaches is not enough. The Muslim’s scripture is the Koran.”

In order to understand the DIFFERENCES, one must be well rooted in one’s own faith and understanding there of. That needs to be taught first and well planted.

 

[Sir_Knight]

I always appreciated it when my children were assigned morally difficult books. In that environment, I was in a position to read along and discuss it with them, putting the story in context of our values and beliefs. It’s what we don’t know they are seeing or reading or listening to that causes difficulties . . .

I’m sorry but I don’t understand what you are saying. Does this mean that I should start taking my pre-teen to X-rated movies and explain how those actions conflict with our values & beliefs? Shouldn’t a Catholic School be teaching these values & beliefs focusing on the POSITIVES and not on the NEGATIVES especially at such a young age?

 

[Sir_Knight]

Hatchet is a Newbery Award winning book. It is quite appropriate for fifth graders to read. The reality is that your child will be entering a very secular world. Many families have been broken by divorce. The effects of divorce can be devastating on children.

Our daughter will not be ENTERING a “very secular world”, she is ALREADY IN a “very secular world” and, as I said earlier, to weather the storms that will be launched against her faith and beliefs, she needs to be well rooted in her faith and beliefs.

 

[DebChris]

If Hatchet is from a non-religious family, then he cannot be expected to know any prayers. That’s the way that I read it anyway.
As Catholics, we learn prayers from the earliest days of our lives. When read from a Catholic perspective, it shows the desperation of a person who does not know God.
I also see his regret/remorse from having tried to take his life.
Even from a non-religious family, the character will be aware that there are “religious words” that are expected for funerals.

One of the realities of today’s world are the number of teenagers (and younger) who cut themselves, sometimes for attention and sometimes as a direct attempt at suicide. Again, I would focus on the character’s regret at having tried to hurt himself. The character overcomes his desperation, a positive message.

 

[Sir_Knight]

If Hatchet is from a non-religious family, then he cannot be expected to know any prayers. That’s the way that I read it anyway.
As Catholics, we learn prayers from the earliest days of our lives. When read from a Catholic perspective, it shows the desperation of a person who does not know God.
I also see his regret/remorse from having tried to take his life.
Even from a non-religious family, the character will be aware that there are “religious words” that are expected for funerals.

One of the realities of today’s world are the number of teenagers (and younger) who cut themselves, sometimes for attention and sometimes as a direct attempt at suicide. Again, I would focus on the character’s regret at having tried to hurt himself. The character overcomes his desperation, a positive message.

Are you talking about from YOUR perspective or from a ten-year old’s perspective?

When I was that age, we read stories which re-enforced Catholic values by focusing on the positives and not on the negatives.

 

[Blade_and_Blood]

Our daughter will not be ENTERING a “very secular world”, she is ALREADY IN a “very secular world” and, as I said earlier, to weather the storms that will be launched against her faith and beliefs, she needs to be well rooted in her faith and beliefs.

That brings back memories. My parents wanted me to be deeply rooted in Catholicism. All sarcasm aside, they did a great job… until I actually started learning something. No amount of religious roots can come close to matching the real world. Let’s just hope that she’s optimistic, though. That’s a good quality to have regardless of religion.

Ironically Yours, Blade and Blood