Literary Rebels Part 1: Where the Wild Things Are

I love stories.  I always have.  Growing up in rural Montana, I didn’t have many playmates, so my daschound and I hid in the closet and read books aloud.   Heidi and Huckleberry Finn.  Mary Poppins and The Little Match Girl.  I loved repeating, “Open, Sesame!” to my rusty companion as we devoured Ali Baba & the 40 Thieves.  As a 7-year old, there was a delicious sense of heroic justice as I imagined Morgiana pouring boiling oil on 37 ruthless criminals.

Looking to share these savory memories with my own children, I came to realize that many of the stories I enjoyed as a child are scarcely found on the shelves of Barnes & Noble.  Labeled politically incorrect, many of these stories have either been retooled to a shadow of their former granduer, or axed entirely.  They must be hunted down on the internet or in the “antique” category on Ebay.  

It’s a dad-gone shame. 

I’m thrilled with the time period God has chosen to give me life, so I’m not a sentimentalist looking to bring back to the “good old days”.  I am a bottom-liner; a realist with a reading appetite that endorses iconoclastic reality; that is, stories which break up my inadequate understandings of life in order to take me (and my children) on to a more adequate grasp of the world.   ”Minds, therefore, must ever continue in object-oriented, self-critical thinking, constantly seeking to reach, as the talking beasts of Narnia phrased it, “further up and further in.” C.S. Lewis. 

For the record, I’m an average size 8 brain and I never even graduated from college.  I do, thanks to Jesus, have a track record now of reading & studying Scriptures, and have added to that foundation by learning lots of cool words and ideas from books authored by size 8 to 12’s (intellectual giants).  Which brings me to an underlying live & die principle in all of this:  Books are never ever ever ever (did I say ever) a substitute or precedent for reading and studying the Scriptures.

That affirmed, classic stories are an excellent tool for complementing Scripture to our children.  Give them honest stories that tell the truth (which means they may be raw and wicked). Give them clarity (truth and lies; innocence and evil). And give them heros to cheer for, heros to push them “further up and further in.”

These forgotten stories awaken a child’s moral imagination.  Not only do they delight and divert and assure children, but they provide deep and abiding moral instruction. Furthermore, they introduce an early critical thinking process beyond our contemporary world, where mental wrestling and intellectual reasoning is often reduced to a worldly Universalist approach.  Sidenote:  I highly recommend reading The Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature .   My girlfriend bought this for my birthday, and it’s FANTASTIC.  However, Feminists Beware! In this book you will be exposed to awful truths, like traditional sex roles do not silence women, erase our sexuality, or blot out our personalities. 

I advocate a classic, liberal children’s library.  Liberal is a good word gone bad.  My 1828 Noah Webster’s dictionary defines liberal as:  Of a free heart; open; candid; as a liberal communication of thoughts.  Embracing other interests than one’s own; a liberal mind embracing literature and the sciences generally, as a liberal education. 

With a firm grasp on Jesus Christ and the Holy Bible as our foundational literature, we can enjoy True liberation in our libraries.  I could make a dozen arguments, but by far the most practical one is that many of the so-called “politically incorrect” stories are delightful material to introduce theology to children.  Simple, pint-sized lessons abound.  I am a parent, I love Jesus, and I adore simple.

So if you’re a mom who (a) loves reading Bible stories, but sense your storybooks are a little light & cheesy, or (b) needs a little jump start with relating Bible stories & principles to every day life, stay tuned.  Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing a few of my favorite children’s stories and authors, as well as practical Simple Simon tips to  turn story time into a rich discussion back to Jesus, every time. 

  

“My mom was a very intellectual person, and she would really rather be reading some philosophical or theological book than ironing.”
Patricia Heaton

“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.” Emilie Buchwald

“A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.”  Robertson Davies

Coming Up:

• Scary Good Fairy Tales:  Once Upon a Time with The Brothers Grimm

• Beowulf:  Why Every Boy Should Read This (and they dad-gone better not butcher the upcoming movie)