Chapter Book Read Alouds

 An ongoing list of our family read alouds (picture books not included--these are primarily text-based with illustrations sprinkled in on occasion). We'll put our kids' ages in parentheses (to the best of our memory). Remember--part of listening as a young child is simply gaining familiarity with words, with the cadence of language, and with basic sentence structure. It's also about developing an appreciation for beautiful language. Our children don't pick up on every little detail, and we're fine with that! But they HAVE sat through these marvelous books....

Megan

• Howard Pyle's Robin Hood
• Farmer Boy
• Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi (one boy, aged 2-3)
• LOTS more! But I'll have to let Megan fill these in... ☺

Betsy

• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (one child, age 4)
• Charlotte's Web (one child, age 3.5)
• Little House in the Big Woods (one child, age 4)
• Little House on the Prairie (one child, age 4?)
• Mrs. Piggle Wiggle (one child, age 4 or 5?)
• My Father's Dragon--whole trilogy (three children, ages 3-5)
• The No. 1 Car Spotter (Atinuke) (three children, ages 4-6)
• Old Mother West Wind (three children, ages 4-6)
• Anna Hibiscus (all 4 books) (one child, age 6)
• Random House Book of Fairy Tales (multiple times; ages 3+)
• Golden Book of Fairies and Elves (one child, age 4+)
• Mercy Watson (whole series, twice) (three children, ages 4+)
• Little House in the Big Woods-again by request of oldest child! (three children, ages 5-6) 
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (again! by request; three children, ages 5-6)
• James and the Giant Peach (audio book; three children, ages 5-6)
• Henry Huggins (audio book; twice back to back by request; three children, ages 5-6) 
• Pinocchio (three children, ages 5-6)
• Beezus and Ramona (audio book; three children, ages 5-6)
• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (audio book; three children, ages 5-6; the 6-year-old REALLY liked it)
• Ragweed (audio book; three children, ages 5-6; 6-year-old liked it best) 
• The Wednesday Witch by Ruth Chew (three children; ages 5-6)

Boxed book set image from goodreads

Do You Own a Hymnal?

Did you know that you, the average person, can own your own hymnal? They're actually quite reasonable in price. We use the Trinity Hymnal in our church and in our home; GCP (Great Commission Publications) sells them for a mere $17. If you have more than three people in your family, consider buying more than one. If you have a musician in your family, consider buying the spiral-bound edition that will stay open while the person plays. We have several hymnals in our home, including that spiral-bound one.

My husband and I grew up sitting in the church pew every Sunday. (And we still do that!) It is true though, that while we learned many hymns by osmosis, as it were, sitting there in the pew Sunday after Sunday, we have also both invested a large portion of time actively learning the great hymns of the faith. My husband plays both piano and organ and has played for countless church services over the years (currently he plays for our own church's morning worship service every other month). I used to accompany my church's evening worship service with my recorder (yes, I did!); there was a pianist as well and occasionally another recorder player.

Reading v. reading

Here we are again, on Literaritea, making a capital/lower case distinction! We've discussed Truth v. truth and Story v. story. Today, we're going to discuss the distinction between Reading and reading. (As with the others, you might think of these as "Big-R Reading" and "Little-r reading" and we will try to make a size distinction clear when we are referencing the distinction).

Reading (capital "R")

Any active, skilled, memorable engagement with words or images that conveys worthy meaning or T/truth to the one who absorbs them. The result of Reading should include ideas or responses of one’s own; i.e., something original to the reader occurs by means of the activity and the text or images which occasion the Reading. Real Reading is a kind of creation cooperatively between one human and another, having some of the life of each.

Madeleine L'Engle puts it this way (Walking on Water): "Creative involvement: that's the basic difference between reading a book and watching TV. In watching TV we are passive; sponges; we do nothing. In reading we must become creators. Once the child has learned to read alone, and can pick up a book without illustrations, he must become a creator, imagining the setting of the story, visualizing the characters, seeing facial expressions, hearing the inflection of voices. The author and the reader "know" each other; they meet on the bridge of words." [I would add to this: in our day of screen-reading, we are increasingly scanning, not reading. It's worth teaching our children to READ).

reading (lower case "r")
A more or less passive and forgettable encounter with words or images that fails to bring one into any real contact with meaning or truth and resulting in no significant or lasting change in the reader and nothing original. [This is frequently the kind of reading we employ when we read web-related information--like this blog! As screen-reading becomes more and more a vehicle for actual literature that is meant to be Read, we must help our children discern when they do, in fact, need to Read instead of merely scan.]

Story/story

Here on Literaritea, we make the distinction between Truth and truth. We also make a distinction between Story and story. As with Truth/truth, you might find it helpful to think of these as "Big S Story" and "Little S Story" or, simply, "Capital Story" and "Small Story" or something along those lines.

When we evaluate the literary merits of a given work, we are looking for the difference between these two versions of "Story." What does that distinction look like?

• Story: a classic narrative that has the power to represent T/truth to people of all times and any places or cultures with unity, persuasiveness, conviction, and memorability. This means that the narrative not only has a good plot, but is crafted well and avoids trite-ness, unnecessary stereotypes and the like. Timeless themes are often found in folklore because one generation has deemed them important to pass onto the next. The greatest Story ever told on earth is the Incarnation of Christ and his Redemption of mankind as seen in Scripture. If Story does not accomplish its potential, it is due to a failure in adequate Reading--yes, we make a distinction between Reading and reading, but more on that another time.


• story: a narrative that fails to achieve classic value or status due to some inherent weakness in unity, persuasiveness, conviction, memorability or truth. Where story fails to realize its potential, the fault is likely to be in some aspect of the narrative, its meaning, or its truth. Even if Read with care and skill, even if it contains essential Truth, story still falls short in some way.

It is hard for us to find Story in works that don't also communicate Truth, but they do exist. The following examples demonstrate Story and story, but, as with T/truth, there is a continuum and often a difference of opinion!

Story Examples (with or without Truth)

• Philip Pullman's Dark Materials books.
• The Secret Life of Octavian Nothing
• A Wrinkle in Time
• Days with Frog and Toad
• Grandpa Green
• classic fairy tales

story Examples (with or without Truth)

• basal readers (poor children!)
• Disney knockoffs of classic fairy tales in book form ("movie versions")

Truth v. truth

We make the distinction here on Literaritea between Truth and truth. One is capitalized; one lowercase. You might think of them as "Big-T Truth" and "Little-t truth" when you are speaking of them. Look for Truth to be bigger in size than truth to help distinguish them (when we're making the distinction).

So, what do we mean by Truth v. truth? We're indebted to a favorite college professor (Mr. Ethan Pettit) for this clarification, and must give him the credit! Here is a short summary of the differences:

• Truth: "Reality as God has ordained it, from the order of His creation and the fall of man. There is good, and that is God. There is evil, and that is the nature of man. There is redemption, and that is Christ." We certainly believe that "all truth is God's truth," and that all mankind has been created in the image of God--therefore, the "nature of man" as evil is more that all mankind has been tainted by the original fall from grace in the Garden of Eden ("in Adam's fall we sinned all" as the old New England primer puts it). Literature which reveals ultimate goodness and the idea of a Creation, shows the effects of sin (and shows them AS sin), offers the hope of redemption--all of this falls under the umbrella of Truth. Needless to say, if there is overt reference to God Himself, a clearly identifiable Christ figure, the presentation of the gospel--these would fall under this category, too. The line between Truth and truth can be fuzzy; when we analyze works for Truth, we are essentially examining the worldview present within them. 


• truth (as common grace): any instance of Truth reduced to the common insights or perceptions of mankind as evidenced in Creation of the common nature of man. This includes such "ideas" as the Golden Rule ("do unto others as you would have them do unto you") and general knowledge such as that reflected around us in the world (gravity).


• truth (as truism): ideas that are commonly recognized and accepted among men but may or may not be accurate according to Scripture (God helps those who help themselves). Ben Franklin is king of this sort of truth!

 

Does this mean we only read "Christian" books since they are the only ones which contain Truth? No! In fact, as we hope to demonstrate, some "Christian" books are very much not the best examples of the combination of Truth and Story. We'll cover Story (and story) in another post. For now, the works below are all examples which fall into either the Truth or truth category. This is a continuum; some books straddle the line.

Truth (some classics and some brand new examples!):

• Narnia (an ultimate, powerful "God" figure; a perfect Creation marred by evil; a final triumphant battle in which good wins; a definite Christ-figure/redemptive storyline...)
  
• The Queen of Attolia and King of Attolia: WOW--what a terrific picture of love, sovereignty, sacrifice, and strong MEN and WOMEN
• Lord of the Flies: talk about effects of the fall! This book shows us creation (a near perfect island paradise), the fall and its many destructive effects, and the hope of redemption (the ship at the end)
• Brothers Karamazov: Just read it if you doubt us :-)

truth

• Old Mother West Wind stories by Thornton Burgess: cute stories about anthropomorphic animals which always carry some sort of moral
• Aesop's Fables always have a moral!

10 Ways to Teach and Reinforce Reading

Why do we teach our children to read? So that they can read Scripture! Secondarily, they are then able to participate more fully in Sunday morning worship in general. And, of course, reading opens multiple doors to further education, to better understanding of theology and ideas/philosophy, and offers immense enjoyment.

Are you teaching your children to read? Diligently? This is a time-consuming task, I'll be the first to admit--I'm working with three new readers simultaneously.

"But I'm not homeschooling my children," you might say. "Their teachers are teaching them." (I'm not full-time homeschooling, either.)

I've got news for you: it is YOUR responsibility to make sure your children learn how to read--and to encourage them to read the Word. Even if they're in school all day, there are still multiple opportunities at home in which you can reinforce what they're learning in school and provide opportunities for them to demonstrate and use their new skills.

Lit!: A Christian Guide to Reading Books

Lit!: A Christian Guide to Reading Books
Tony Reinke
Crossway
2011

Lit! is a terrific introduction to what it means to read as a Christian, from a Christian worldview; Reinke covers why we, as Christians, should be readers, how we should read, and what we should read. He covers a lot of ground succinctly (less than 200 pages) and includes both theoretical and practical information. This book, in particular, is a good introduction to a Reformed worldview, to the idea that the gospel is both central to our existence and informs everything we do, that common grace insights can be found in many places, and to a basic understanding of Christianity and the arts. If you are already familiar with the ideas of thinkers such as Neil Postman, James Sire, C. S. Lewis, Puritan theologians such as John Owen, Reformation "greats" such as Calvin and Luther, and are widely read in the more well known creative authors in Christendom (Tolkien, Lewis, John Donne, Dostoevsky, Flannery O'Connor, etc.), then this book will be a refresher course. If most of what I've just discussed in this first paragraph sounds like Greek to you, I highly recommend this book.

Hide and Seek Devotional

Hide (the Word) and Seek (the Lord) Devotional
Stephen Elkins, "creator"
Amanda Gulliver, illustrator
Thomas Nelson
2012

Can you have too many kids' devotional guides? While I certainly like some story Bibles and devotionals better than others, I'm also inclined to think that just about anything that gets kids reading their Bibles and hiding God's Word in their hearts is on the right track. Enter: The Hide (the Word) and Seek (the Lord) Devotional!

What I like: This devotional gives a (very) short summary of a Bible story but suggests kids read it for themselves and gives the Scripture references. Each "chapter" is centered on a Bible verse that works thematically with the Bible story presented. Verses are organized in ABC format AND include full A-Z lists for BOTH Old and New Testaments!! The verses are not the "usual" contenders for their given letters, either. Rather, a key word that starts with that letter is used instead of merely the first letter of each verse. (The "Old Testament" and "New Testament" categories refer to the memory verse location, not necessarily that the coordinating story is from the same testament.) This means that some of my all-time favorite verses make an appearance (such as Zephaniah 3:17). Another bonus: there is a Scripture memory song for each verse. Lyrics are given at the bottom of the page. AND there are free downloads on Thomas Nelson for the songs as well as an audio version of the short story given on the page (narrator? Kirk Cameron). In my experience, nothing helps cement something in your memory like music. I also like the layout of each page. At least in my digital review copy, there aren't many illustrations to distract the reader/listener.

What I don't like: the short paragraph versions of the Bible stories are a little "chatty" and "cute" but I think kids will like them. I'm willing to overlook some of that in favor of the encouragement to the kid readers to get in the Word! The Scripture translation used is NIV; we tend to use ESV in our house, but again, I'd be willing to "give" on this one in favor of kids actually learning the Scripture. In addition, the entire verse isn't given (i.e. "A gentle answer turns away wrath" without also including "but a harsh word stirs up anger.") You can still encourage your children to memorize the entire verse and in whatever version you choose; the songs, however, will not correspond.

I should point out that I haven't read every page yet. I won't answer to the theological accuracy of each verse/story. What I have seen, though, makes me tempted to look into this for a gift for one of my kids.

Recommended age group: older preschool-mid elementary

Even in the advance review copy I have, the website given is up and running. So, check out the Hide and Seek Bible site to listen to the songs for yourself (you'll also get to hear the devotional parts, too). Cover image above from same website. ARC from .

Books Children Love

Books Children Love
Elizabeth Laraway Wilson
Susan Schaeffer Macaulay
Crossway
2002

Another must have resource for parents! Those familiar with Francis Schaeffer may recognize his daughter's name as one of the co-authors. Wilson and Laraway have put together a terrific collection of book lists in the educational spirit of Charlotte Mason who advocated "living books" as a means to educate children (instead of "dead textbooks"). Thus, the book is filled with lists of nonfiction books that are really interesting to children and accurate enough to be good sources of information. There are nonfiction categories as well (fantasy, fairy tales, etc.), but I think the nonfiction sections really shine. So many other lists for children ignore these types of categories or under-represent them. Nice, succinct summaries of books are provided so that readers can know what the book is about. Lists are categorized and well-organized.

Again, a print-based book of book lists can only include books published before its own publication date. Megan and I seek, on this blog, to direct you to recent books that might be included in such worthy resources as this when next they are updated. (And critically evaluate current resources in general) We also enjoy reviewing books that have already been covered in such books as Books Children Love and examining whether they have stood the test of time.

Confessions and the "Canon"

First, my two confessions:

1. Despite my desire to "keep short accounts" and finish the books currently on my bookshelves, I have already been bitten hard by the bug to keep reading others' (new) recommendations.... I have 4 books in process right now, one of which has languished on my bookcase for a few months, one of which was a library checkout prompted by some review somewhere, and two are Advance Review Copies (ARCs) on my Nook. (sigh) The plus side is that they're all GREAT, so stay tuned!
2. I've never read Jane Eyre.

I know, right?! How can someone carry on with a literature blog, profess to have been an English major in college, a former English teacher, and have a literature-based MA... and NOT have read Jane Eyre? It's a shocker. (Thankfully, I'm not the only one with this dark and dirty little secret.)

So, I'm going to redefine my goals for this year. First, I'm not going to attempt to read every book that sits on my bookshelves, hitherto unread by me. Second, I'm really going to make an attempt to finally read Jane Eyre. My secret lurks in the back of my mind, calling out "fraud!" 

Honey for a Child's Heart

Honey for a Child's Heart
Gladys Hunt
Zondervan
2002

This book is a must for Christian parents. Hunt gives a marvelous rationale for why we should be reading to our children--and what we should be reading to our children--in the light of Scripture. Fully half of the book is her philosophy of reading and her encouragement to us to read to our children.

The second half of the book is comprised of lists--suggestions of what to read to your children that meet her standards given earlier. The books are divided up by age and category. I use these lists often to put books on reserve at the library. I'm rarely disappointed. This is one of the few books I think is definitely worth owning.

But a print-based book inevitably falls behind. While there are truly wonderful books published in the past that shouldn't be missed, there are also new, truly wonderful books being published all the time. I suppose what Megan and I hope to do here on this blog is direct you in one of two ways: to books we think are truly wonderful and shouldn't be missed (both past and present)--in the spirit of Honey for a Child's Heart. The other direction is to critically evaluate some of the new books that are bestsellers or garnering praise from the biggies in the publishing/library worlds (sources such as Horn Book, Scholastic, ALA Awards, etc.).

Egermeier's Bible Story Book

Ergermeier's Bible Story Book has been around for generations! First published in 1922, it has continued to be updated and published ever since. We have an older edition from the 1970s, but our kids still enjoy it.

This story Bible is a nice followup to Kenneth Taylor's Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes. If you enjoyed Taylor's story Bible with your toddlers and preschoolers, reach for this when your children hit elementary school. The stories are between 2 paragraphs and 2 pages in length: a fact which I very much appreciate. Rather than editing stories to fit in a certain framework, Ergemeier breaks the stories up logically, letting longer events take up more space. And she covers the entire Bible, not skipping over gruesome stories or even the book of Revelation. This story Bible will take you a long time to get through, but it is worth it. There are discussion questions after each story which are wonderful. Sometimes, we have to rephrase them, and our 4 and a half year olds don't always follow them. Our 6 year old, on the other hand, is picking up every word and can nearly always answer each question.

Stories are covered chronologically with Scripture references given. To give you an example, the New Testament starts with the announcement of the birth of John. Between the announcement of John's birth and his actual birth/naming, the story of the angel's visits to Mary and Joseph and Mary's visit to Elizabeth are recounted. (For some reason, this story Bible leaves out Anna and Simeon in the temple with the baby Jesus--it includes so many other smaller stories that I'm puzzled about this oversight.)

I highly recommend this Bible story book; I must point out, though, that it does contain pictures of Jesus. Occasionally, there are liberties taken with the stories--additions made in order to make the stories more understandable to young children (comments about someone being happy or similar ideas). We haven't found any that are overly troubling to us, but it's worth pointing out. We also tend to add to the questions or reword on occasion; still they are wonderful starting points, and we so much appreciate that this story Bible doesn't cutesy up the Bible with trite sayings or pithy quotations. And, because Scripture references are included, it is easy to read the actual Bible along with it.

Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes

I've reviewed Kenneth Taylor's terrific Bible memory books already; now, let's look at his The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes. Again, he has a real gift for communicating on a very young child's level. This story Bible has been around awhile. The volume pictured on the left is the one my husband and I each grew up reading (and the one we now have to read to our children). The one on the right has updated illustrations.

This story Bible has quite a few Bible stories in it; it doesn't skip over the gruesome stories or gloss over events such as the sacrifice of Isaac or the Passover. Instead, Taylor communicates the essence of the story in a way young children can understand. After each short story (about 2 paragraphs), there are some simple comprehension questions for children about the story.

It's worth pointing out that this Bible does have pictures of Jesus (obviously--the front of the newest version shows Christ). If that is not troublesome for you, then I highly recommend checking this one out!

The Big Picture Story Bible

The Big Picture Story Bible
David Helm, author
Gail Schoonmaker, illustrator
2010

I know this book has been out longer than its publication date is showing; we got ours for our boys' 1st birthday back in 2008. At any rate, this is a terrific Bible story book to use for toddlers and preschoolers when you want to do just what the title says: give them the big picture. It's not a substitute for a traditional Bible story book; it doesn't have many stories in it that you might normally expect to see in a children's story Bible. For example, in one picture, you see Joseph in a many colored coat, but that particular story is not in the text.

What the book does do is group periods of Biblical history together and weave them all in one long narrative: the big picture. From Creation onwards, we are waiting to find God's forever king that He promised in the garden. Once Jesus is born, we rejoice in the forever King!

Illustrations are terrific, by the way.

Check this book out if you are looking for a resource to help teach your young children about the big picture of the Biblical narrative.

ABC Bible Verses: Hiding God's Word in Little Hearts

Susan Hunt's ABC Bible Verses: Hiding God's Word in Little Hearts is a terrific Bible memory tool for 4's and 5's (and even older). These stories are longer than the ones in Kenneth Taylor's Scripture memory books, and the questions at the end are a little more complex. The verses are organized alphabetically by first letter of the verse. If you're familiar with Steve Green's Hide 'em In Your Heart CD's, you will recognize some of these verses. But there are plenty of new ones, and the stories help flesh out the verses nicely. Some of the stories are a little warm and fuzzy, but overall, this has been a great tool to help us learn Scripture with our children. We've read and discussed (and memorized) one verse a week.

The verses are in the New King James version, so I rewrote these in our preferred version/translation (ESV); thankfully, most of the beginning letters were the same!

Big Thoughts, Wise Words, and Giant Steps

Kenneth Taylor has a knack for knowing how to communicate with the youngest children. These three books are all sets of verses laid out for Scripture memory: a short (VERY) synopsis/explanation of the verse alongside an illustration form each "lesson." There are also review and application questions--which I really love. For instance, the verse might be about loving your neighbor. The questions will be along the lines of, "Do you see someone in the picture who is loving his or her neighbor?" In addition, each illustration has ladybugs hidden throughout--finding the ladybugs is a hugely enjoyable pastime for toddlers and preschoolers.

My only complaint about these books is that the verses are often paraphrased--and I would prefer a translation. That's a simple matter to fix, though, and I just typed up the verses in the translation we preferred. This even works with the ABC volume (Big Thoughts) because the ABC letters relate to a concept, not the first letter of the verse.

The first book has been updated--you see the updated cover in that image--but I don't believe the other two have. Nevertheless, our children haven't minded the somewhat dated illustrations. These are readily available used--so snap them up!

Big Thoughts for Little People: ABC Concepts with coordinating verses (i.e. "I" is Illness)
Wise Words for Little People: verses from Proverbs
Giant Steps for Little People: 10 Commandments and Beattitudes

Scripture Memory: Hide 'em In Your Heart

There are some great books for Scripture memory--and I fully plan on highlighting our favorites. But nothing, and I mean nothing, beats these Hide 'em In Your Heart CD's from Steve Green for Scripture memory with young children!

 I could go on and on, folks. Suffice it to say that Mommy needs the verses on these CD's as much as the kiddos. The range of verses is terrific--alternating between verses that instruct us in how to act (i.e. "Do everything without complaining or arguing") and those which inform us of who God is/what He has done (i.e. "For God so loved the world..."). Before each verse, there is a very short introduction/explanation by Steve Green. Then, the entire verse is sung--no mere snippets or phrases here (i.e. "Do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God."). The songs are original compositions and are sung by Steve with a kids' choir. Our kids have loved listening to these CD's, and Scripture memory has followed effortlessly. The verses themselves have become part of our everyday conversation. If someone is misbehaving, I can ask him or her, "What are your actions saying about you? Remember our verse? "Even a child is..." and the child will fill in the rest of the verse. Or, if someone is cranky, we might sing "A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones."

We have volumes 1 and 2. Both volumes are available as a set on amazon I believe. You can also check out the resources on Steve Green's website.

Teaching Discernment to Wee Ones

Ideally, teaching discernment to our children begins at birth! Everything we do and say instructs and models something--whether we're aware of it or not.

But there are more formal methods out there for teaching discernment--as soon as your young child can talk. What are these methods? Very simply: instruction in Biblical literacy! What better way to teach discernment to our children? After all, bank tellers learn the real money in order to better spot the fake money. The same principle holds true here--our children will learn truth in order to better evaluate and spot potential falsehoods.

I'd love to start a mini-series on this idea and highlight some resources that have aided us. Our children are still quite young (4-year-old twins and an almost-6-year-old; Megan's oldest is 4) so I/we don't have much experience with the resources out there for older children. Feel free to weigh in with your thoughts in the comments! I'm sure Megan will contribute, too, but she and I have used many of the same resources--so rest assured that much of this content is coming from both of us even if I am the "poster."

Talking About Books

Some basic questions to get you started talking about books (with your kids!):

1. What did you like about the book?
2. What did you not like about the book?
3. Who is your favorite character and why?
4. Do you like the ending? Does it "work"?
5. What's the main point of the book? (this is really the "theme" but you don't have to call it that)
   
6. Is there anything in the book (characters, plot, theme) that you think demonstrates Biblical truth? (this can be VERY broad: kindness, beautiful creation, dignity/worth of human life, justice, mercy, consequences for sin, drugs/alcohol seen as less than exemplary, positive portrayals of marriage and/or gender, actual discussions in the book of such concepts as forgiveness/redemption/heart condition, ....).
7. Is there anything in the book (characters, plot, theme) that you think violates Biblical truth? (again, VERY broad: injustice, setting up of self as absolute truth/standard, extra marital sex glorified, lack of redemption outside of self, no positive portrayal of marriage, gender called into question, unnecessary language/profanity, violence for the sake of violence, characters denigrated who exhibit such things as the Fruit of the Spirit, ....)
8. Is there anything in the book that troubles you? (very broad again)
9. Do you want to read more books like this (or by this author)? Why or why not?
10. Anything else you can think of?

You don't have to ask all of these, of course. But it's worth noting that sometimes pointing out what a book does well can be just as, if not more, instructive than what a book portrays that's "wrong." I'll try to offer some discussion points for the books I review. And, as I mentioned earlier, I'll try to provide some more tools for teaching discernment.

"Let's Talk About Sex, Baby..."

If you're from my generation, you are immediately singing along (perhaps aloud?) to a song about which you, no doubt, assured your parents something like the following, "Mom, I'm only listening to the beat!" Believe me, I was one of the "good kids" who rarely pushed the envelope, even as a teen. Yet, when I was a co-sponsor for student council during my second year of teaching, the "StuCo" leaders came to me and my colleague to get their music approved for the upcoming school dance. "Baby Got Back," another familiar song from my high school years, was one of the songs on the list. My colleague and I immediately vetoed it; there was no room for it at our Christian school dance.

"But it's got a great beat!" They protested. "No one's listening to the words."

Without missing a beat (no pun intended), my colleague and I both began singing the song. Our StuCo leaders looked at us in shock. Were these words coming out of our teachers' mouths?! We grinned, and he said, "We just listened to the beat in high school, too." They surrendered.

So, why am I telling you this? Because the appearance of sex in the media, especially that which is targeted towards teens, is nothing new. If your son or daughter has read the book of Genesis, then he or she has been exposed to sex!

It does seem that contemporary literature is more graphic, more descriptive, more forceful in its portrayals of sex. No longer are contemporary authors skirting the issue, implying that a young couple has been experimenting. They are telling us the details of this young couple's experiment.

So, what do you, as a Christian parent and/or teacher, do? Ban all contemporary fiction? Tell your teen to stay away from the teen shelf in the library at all costs? Read everything first? No way. First of all, you can't read everything first--there isn't enough time, especially if your teen is an avid reader. Second, there are some really wonderful authors out there writing right now. Contemporary fiction is eminently relevant to teens, even if it's a contemporary piece of fantasy or historical fiction. People write differently in this age of facebook updates, twitter, texting; text is more sparse, direct, and crafted than it was previously, especially in the age of Dickens--a man who got paid by the word (that explains a lot, doesn't it!?).

Some possible avenues to explore instead:

1. Talk with your teen--about everything. If he or she doesn't feel like the doors of communication are open, he or she will go elsewhere to discuss. There are some meaty issues here, and the media is addressing them. Will we?
   
2. Teach discernment. Ask thought-provoking questions, encourage discussion. I'm hoping to do a short series this summer with more on this, so stay tuned.
3. Seek out reviews from those who share your worldview and offer some well written books to your teen that help balance what you may view to be unacceptable.
4. Encourage discussion between your teen and his/her friends--show that books can be discussed, disagreed about, picked apart, and still be "fun."
   
5. Don't discuss everything--let your teen start to exercise discernment, to practice before he or she leaves home.