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Friday, September 22, 2006
Rebecca Hagelin :: Townhall.com Columnist
Book reviews that parents can use
by Rebecca Hagelin
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“Mom, all my friends are going to see a movie tonight. Can I go, too?”

How many millions of parents over the years have been asked this question? It’s all too easy to simply focus on who is going and forget that we need to look at what they’re going to before we arrange the transportation (i.e., whether you’re taking or picking up). Thankfully, for several years we’ve had great Web sites like Focus on the Family’s “Plugged In” to provide guidance on content. As a mom of three teens, I can tell you that no one sees a movie in our home without my first visiting Plugged In.

Wouldn’t it be great if there were a Web site that could provide content reviews of books? Well, I have some good news: Thanks to the Alabama Policy Institute’s “Facts on Fiction” Web site, now there is.

Some parents may question the need for such a service. After all, we’re talking about books, often ones recommended by teachers. Besides, we’re always trying to keep kids from spending too much time with electronic entertainment, and we don’t want to discourage a wholesome activity such as reading, do we?

As I’ve written before, though, some of the books that have found their way into the “teen” section of your local bookstore and onto school-sponsored “recommended reading” lists are questionable at best -- and downright immoral at worst. Consider this case, courtesy of Sharon Evans, program director of the Alabama Policy Institute:

Susan Gamble, founder and president of Magic City Webs, could not keep up with her third grader’s voracious appetite for books. She was thrilled that her eight-year-old loved to read. However, when he came to her with a question about a curse word in his book, she was curious. Upon perusal, Susan found the book peppered with expletives. There also was an instance of a man fondling a woman's breasts, children looking at pornographic magazines and references of gore and child abuse.

Then Susan spent some time on the Internet and made another unpleasant discovery: The kind of detailed reviews available for movies, TV shows and even video games didn’t exist for books.

Until now. Visit the new Facts on Fiction, and you’ll find a list of more than 125 books (with many more on the way), complete with the kind of specific information busy parents need to make informed decisions about whether a particular book is right for their child.

And that, Sharon stresses, is exactly what Facts on Fiction is intended to do -- make it easier for parents to do their job. The aim is not to censor books or call for boycotts, but to allow parents to decide if a certain book is right for their child. Sometimes it’s a question of timing: A book that’s acceptable for a 16-year-old, for example, may be wrong for an 11-year-old. Other times, a book is so bad that a parent may decide it’s never acceptable. But that’s the beauty of Facts on Fiction: Either way, the parent decides.

The reviews, conducted by retired teachers, librarians, home-schooling moms and writers, summarize the books and then examine how they approach certain sensitive topics. There are six main categories:

§ Mature Subject Matter

§ Profanity/Language

§ Sexual Content

§ Violence/Illegal Activity

§ Tobacco/Alcohol/Drugs

§ Disrespectful/Anti-Social Elements

Each category is broken into specifics. For example, does the book in question contain mild obscenities, sexual references or scatological terms, and if so, how often? The reviews will tell you. And if you need more detail (including quotes and page numbers), the reviews give you that as well. The “Disrespectful/Anti-Social Elements” is particularly helpful for those trying to gauge the overall moral tone. For example, do characters lie, cheat or steal without consequence?

As for selection, some might expect Facts on Fiction to profile the more salacious titles out there, like Cecily von Ziegesar’s “Gossip Girl” series. But as Sharon notes, there’s limited value to doing that. For one thing, these books tend to be upfront about what they offer. (Ziegesar’s book proudly calls itself, right on the cover, “Sex and the City for the younger set.”) Plus, books that appear safe but sneak in some inappropriate content can be worse, if only because they catch parents off guard. That’s why Facts on Fiction concentrates on the books that don’t seem threatening -- the allegedly “safe,” award-winning titles found on school reading lists.

The bottom line is: There’s now a site designed to equip parents with the information they need to make the right decisions about what their children read. Kudos to “Facts on Fiction” for making the tough job of parenting just a little bit easier.
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About The Author
Rebecca Hagelin is a public speaker on the family and culture and the author of the new best seller, 30 Ways in 30 Days to Save Your Family.
 
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(6 comments so Far)
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Reply # 1
Date: Sep 22, 2006 - 7:38 AM EST
Read the book yourself
How many modern parents read anything except "People" magazine these days? The problem I see is that parents never visit the bookstore themselves and have no idea what's available, and they personally don't read.

I never gave my kids a book that I hadn't read personally -- and a goodly number of "modern" teen literature is unsuitable for ME to read, much less for them. And how do you stop them reading garbage? Hold out your hand and say "Give me that" is a good way to respond -- but you have to lay the groundwork first. Read good books to your kids from the time they're old enough to sit in your lap, and give them good books you've read yourself. My boys loved Kipling's "Jost So Stories" from early days, and Beatrix Potter in the original autograph (including such words as 'soporific' -- little kids love big words). When I told them they weren't going to see the Disney version of the Hunchback of Notre Dame because it trashed a great book, I told them what was in the actual book and both of them read it -- and asked "Why didn't they make a movie out of THIS?"

The answer is really much more simple than going on line to see what other people said about a book. Read the darned book for yourself. Not only will it allow you to judge the suitability of the book, it will also open your eyes to a situation, as the Music Man put it, you do not wish to acknowledge.
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Reply # 2
Date: Sep 22, 2006 - 10:19 AM EST
A reflection of the culture...

As you know literature, film, art and music reflect the culture. Much of what our culture is producing now is worthless, since it reflects man in despair and man in his rebellion. If this stuff is required reading, then here is a good teaching opportunity for parents to point out to their children how the world view of men will come out in their creative works. Teach them to identify the different world views by listening to what men say.

There are many resources available that have compiled classical reading lists arranged by grade level and subject. GOOGLE ‘classical reading list’ for example. You are most likely to find a resource that meets your perspective without having to resort to the new stuff.
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Reply # 3
Date: Sep 22, 2006 - 11:14 AM EST
That's why they're called classics...
because they're timeless.

In terms of modern stuff that's bound to become classics, I'll nominate the Harry Potter series. Sure, it's witchcraft (which is bound to get some people near to an apopleptic fit), but kids know fantasy from real life. My kids are being raised as good Catholics (ex-wife's family), and they're not being turned into anything buy it, nor is anyone else they know. They love the clear-cut good-vs-evil theme of the books, and that in itself is worth a lot.

"GOOGLE ‘classical reading list’ for example. You are most likely to find a resource that meets your perspective without having to resort to the new stuff."
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Reply # 4
Date: Sep 22, 2006 - 1:53 PM EST
Parents and censorship
If children read books at all these days a miracle should be declared rather than worrying about what they are reading but parents should guide their children's interests not through censorship but through setting a good example of intellectual persuits and interests. If the parents don't read or have enquirinmg minds then how can they expect their children to? As far as crude language goes they will hear more at school or with their friends and classmates than they ever will read in books or see in movies. Are the parents going to follow their children around to censor what each person they meet says? Hearing crude language and seeing sexually explicit material will not harm a child who is well brought up by his or her parents. You cannot hide things from your children. If they want to see them. They will find a way to see them. You can however mold their characters so that they will be able to handle a variety of experiences and know how to make proper choices. What you teach children is far more valuable than what you try to hide from them. Even growing up in the forties I saw my first pornography in the playground of a gradeschool being viewed by other children. Now there is the Internet where they can see anything they want from hardcore pornography to beheadings. The best thing parents can do is to build good character into their children which will insulate them better than any censorship or Internet filters. They can find ways around the latter but they can make proper choices with the former.
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Reply # 5
Date: Sep 23, 2006 - 2:41 PM EST
What kids read and see in films
Hi. I'm a single parent of a now 20 year old. She's an artist, majoring in Art at college, which is a miracle because she was terribly dyslexic. In her first school and in her middle school, she worked so hard to learn to read. She succeeded. I mention this because...

I read voraciously, have a ph.d and was born before TV (1943). My daughter is adopted at birth but we are very bonded. HOWEVER, she doesn't read for pleasure at all. She reads what she must in college and she has overcome dyslexia. What is SO sad for me is that we are living in a world where all that education she labored over, seems to me to have NO point. I mean she was a gifted kid except with language. She reads people magazine, Harry Potter, classics only in high school.

I think this whole world is far to wired for our kids. I parenthetically never forced her to watch or not watch TV, as I never watch myself. I knew she was a kid who had from the beginning, good morals. So I let her watch what she wanted and she never chose sex, violence etc. She likes Law and Order. (well, a bit violent). But my main response here is that if your kids don't read, then why did she bother with all that schooling if she doesn't. The books you would ban I wound not. I would be happy if she read ANYTHING.

So, my question here is if your kids were natural readers, do you make them turn off tv, cell phones, im on internet, emails etc. That seems what this anti-intellectual culture is all about. I think allowing reading of any sort is better than letting them be too much involved in virtual reality. for me, it's too late, as she is a young adult. But for you whose kids CAN read, they should be assigned books by parents, from an early age. This non-reading world makes me so sad. Thanks Wendy
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Reply # 6
Date: Sep 26, 2006 - 8:23 PM EST
Weighing in late, but ...
As a parent who has a teenage daughter and a son just learning how to read, I rarely have time to read the actual book my daughter wants to read before she reads it. Now that she's in public school, she just comes home from school with a book and it's half-read before I know it's there. So far, she's proved a pretty good judge of literature (I'm going to credit eight years of Christian school for that). There are classics all over our house, but of course she'd rather read something about a more contemporary person or event.

However, I for one (animalgirl, ProfGene, are you listening?) appreciate a resource that gives me the skinny on whether or not I should be concerned about a book she is reading. Yes, parents should be concerned if their children are drinking poison, and reading trash is mental poison. What they hear in the school yard is likely water off a duck's back to the child raised in a good home, but I know from my own extensive reading that what you read, you own. I can still recall passages from books I haven't opened in 30 years. And, some of those passages, I wish my parents had discussed with me.

I seriously doubt I will ever censor what my daughter reads. I think we've done a good enough job so far that I won't have to. However, if I see her reading a book that I know has subjects that should be discussed, you can bet we'll be discussing them.

And, animalgirl, first, your kid is how old -- six months? It's a little early for a critique on how she turns out and whether that "let her read what she wants" policy will work out for you and her. I prefer to get my parenting advice from people who have grandchildren in the same age group as my children. I at least know how their kids turned out.

All of those most beloved parenting mentors tell me this is a great resource and something every truly committed parent should be checking out. You don't base your decision to let your child read or not to read on this one resource, but it gives parents the heads up as to whether they need to read the book themselves or at least broach some of the subjects the child will encounter in the book. That's what good parents do, folks! They parent!
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