To kick things off again, I thought we could have a little Throwback Thursday thoughts. Now, I don't know what most of you grew up reading. When my husband tells stories of his reading assignments, they were always so literary: Catcher In The Rye or John Steinbeck novels. And sure, I read Little Women growing up - had a few classical novels in college too. But the bulk of my early reading was Christian Children's Fiction.
Like these two:
These were two of my best remembered re-reads. I swear I must have read them more than five times each. They were published by BJU Press way back in the 80s and I think my mom bought the entire catalog of children's fiction that year - at least, that's what my childhood brain remembers.
The Journeyman was this story about a kid who is raised by a neighbor until a journeyman painter comes through and takes the boy with him to apprentice. From what I remember, it was engaging and fascinating. I mean, obviously I read it a whole lot of times.
But when I look back on it now, I think how the mom of this boy died trying to keep his newborn body warm during a cold winter. I think about why that would have happened if dad was in the bed too, because it's not like they were trapped outside or something. I get so disturbed by the message that your parents don't love you, except the dead ones.
The second book in the series (also well-loved by childhood-Me) is of this kid as an adult and ugh. I can't even describe how it bothers me to look back on. He's married, but looking back he was so arrogant, or maybe his wife was just painted as "not as faithful" as him. Because, of course. I think I re-read it and always made myself into the guy, so at least I wasn't the weak one. But it's still a sad commentary on the state of what the books teach kids about marriage and family.
And then the there's the other story. Two Collars. It's the last book in a trilogy - also well-loved by childhood-Me. I think I read the other books in the series more than this one, but this one sticks out in my head more. Even childhood-Me got disturbed by it.
This girl (Yes! main character is a girl. The whole series has female leads, but they always have a lot of arrogance that needs to be stripped out of them, so they learn to be more submissive to "God's plan). Anyway, the girl is a slave in a juggling troupe. Beaten, starved, the whole nine yards. But when this older woman purchases her, something happens. I don't really remember what. All I remember of the story was that the girl eventually got her freedom when the older woman died, but by then she understood that she was never really free anyway because the collar put on her by God (or something) was invisible.
I think about all of this as I head off to the Scholastic book sale tomorrow. I'm not against my kids reading books about hard subjects, but it really bothers me when there's obviously an agenda to paint someone in the story as God or Jesus for these people, so that the kids reading would make a connection to the way God works in the world. Especially when it ends up with a hokey everything-bad-was-really-good way.
You don't like being a slave? Get used to it, cause God asks that of you too - but he's nicer. You as a girl want to see a good example of loving your children? Die for them, or if not, you can love all the other children by taking them in cause your own don't matter as much as the other ones. You want to be a leader, as a girl? You have to empty yourself of everything and allow God to put people in your path who know how to lead, silly girl.
Ugh, so obviously I still have some unresolved issues about these books. You can bet I'm not buying them for my kids to read. Here kids, have Diary of a Wimpy Kid instead. :P
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