Articles, Book Reviews

Don’t just read

Encouraging reading is like encouraging eating, or drinking… or YouTube short-watching. Should our kids shovel in just anything that’s served up in front of them? *****  You’ve seen the poster at your local library – “READ!” it commands in the biggest block letters. But for all its brevity, the message lacks some clarity. Read what? And, as every boy needs to know, why should we? Other posters offer more specifics. “Read more books” we’re told, because “Reading makes you smarter,” so we should “Read every day.” Not all reading slogans are as instructive, but some are downright inspiring, and cute enough to leap off the library walls and maybe make an appearance on a girl’s t-shirt: My weekend is booked Bookmarks are for quitters I read, therefore I don’t text back But if those are cute, there’s also a bunch that are more than a little sad. Pitched as encouragements to read, they should be understood as reasons to close the cover, and get out into the real world. Books are my best friends Books stay. People leave. Books: because reality is overrated As you might expect in a secular library, some of their slogans are straight-out lies, and fairly easy to spot in how they promise too much. Books never fail Fiction fixes everything Reading makes every student stronger More troubling are the slogans that are true enough, but where they can cut both ways. Reading opens new worlds Books shape young minds Books are full of surprises Marx remade the world with a book. Kinsey did it with a report. The written word is indeed powerful, and your local library has all sorts of life-changing, world-opening books fully intended to shape young minds, much to the surprise of many parents. Some of those new worlds are delightful – you can probably find a copy of The Wingfeather Saga, or The Wilderking Trilogy – but others are dark. All the most popular teen and pre-teen fiction seems tainted, most often by homosexuality (pushed in everything from Wings of Fire, to Percy Jackson, and Keeper of the Lost Cities) but also demons, or even homosexual demons. Evolution too. And far too much angsty drama. The same mind-reshaping agenda is evident even among the picture books, where kids too young to know the proper anatomical terms for key bits of their bodies are already being targeted by transgender activist/authors. So we don’t want to just read. We want to read with discernment. We want to pick for ourselves what we will ingest, and not simply chow down on what the Enemy has managed to market on the best-seller lists. We want to be intentional, and teach our kids to be choosy too. So to end off, here’s one more secular slogan, but finished off right.

Knowledge starts with reading. Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord.

If you’re looking for books that will educate, edify, or entertain, and oftentimes all three at once, then be sure to check out our many recommendations.