A Focus on Christian Literature

Laura began a new book today. I chose to have Laura begin reading The Secret in the Maple Tree. This is an Abeka reader that I bought when we began homeschooling. The story is perfect for Laura in that the main character is an eight year old girl. As much as I love having Laura read all these wonderful books from the library, many of them are secular. I like having some Christian literature around too. I feel that giving Laura Christian stories and viewpoints is necessary. There is a lot of stuff out there that is NOT going to give a child a Christian example to follow. There are books classified as secular that have Christianity or Christian themes in them. You have to be selective. So many books, even some classics, portray some things that I don't want my daughter reading. How many books portray families doing devotions or praying? Very few talk about bible stories like The Secret of the Maple Tree does with Elijah in the first chapter.

I have thought and prayed about this. Laura and I are both readers. We LOVE to read and almost always have a book in our hands. I have been a huge reader since I was young. I remember the stuff I read before I accepted Christ. I know that, for me, what I chose to read had definite consequences in my thought processes and attitudes. I know the same goes for music and television shows and movies. What we allow into our brain can sink deep. (I don't blame music or movies, however, for people doing awful things. People make choices and need to take responsibility instead of playing the blame game.)

I'd read a lot of novels before I was saved where making bad choices was a good thing. Children being disrespectful to their parents was entertainment. Premarital sex was portrayed as romantic. Even things such as revenge and theft were part of the adventure...and this was the good guys. Now I know better. Thank God for the good Christian books out there that I've read in the past few years that have helped to counter all that stuff I'd put in my brain for years. Karen Kingsbury novels gave me some of the first wonderful examples of Christian families that I'd never gotten anywhere else.

Should my daughter be sheltered from controversial topics in books? No, but I think the controversial things can be kept to a minimum and balanced with discussion, especially at this young age.

I am in the process of making a list of books, both independent readers and read alouds that I want her to read the rest of this year. This is difficult because there are so many awesome books out there, both Christian and Classic. I plan to include both.