Be Brave About Books

Written By: Jenny Phillips Published On: October 7, 2019

Do you really know what is in the books your children are reading and how it is affecting them? Books are powerful, but they have been changing in the past century, and in turn, they are changing the character of children, family dynamics, and our communities. We are calling on all parents to listen and consider this message from Jenny Phillips, the founder of The Good and the Beautiful. Taking time to watch this message could literally change the course of your child’s life.

I’m Jenny Phillips, the founder of The Good and the Beautiful. Our free curriculum and our free Book List have been downloaded by over a million people. Years ago, I had my eyes opened to what books were doing to my children, and I took action. It completely changed the course of my children’s lives, and that is why I’m sharing this message with you. Taking time to watch this message could literally change the course of your child’s life. This video is like taking you up to the mountains where the air is clean and pure, where you can rise above the world and see clearly. These children entrusted to us are so precious, and there is darkness fighting cleverly and fiercely for their hearts and minds. I want to expose that darkness for what it is.
Do You Know How Books Have Changed?
Do you really know what is in the books your children are reading, and how it is affecting them? Do you know how books have changed over the past century and why it should matter to you? We all want our children’s lives to be planted in good ground. We want their minds and their hearts to grow in rich, nutrient-filled soil, and we know that books are powerful. We look at historical figures like Thomas Edison and Abraham Lincoln, whose lives were greatly impacted by books, and we want our children to love reading, too. But books have changed. For years, I have been researching the transformation of books over the past century and a half, and I am alarmed at what has taken place and how unaware many good parents are.
Books Today
So many popular books today are not only stripped of nutrient-rich soil but are filled with toxins that are greatly damaging the character and minds of our children. Books that are being read by millions of children are like garbage dumps, not healthy places for children’s minds and hearts to grow. It’s time, as a nation and as a world—parents become more aware of what is in children’s books. I invite you to join the movement to return to literature that is respectful, wholesome, and powerful. Let’s start seeing it. Let’s start talking about it, and let’s start doing something about it.
When you step back and look at these examples as a whole, a concerning pattern begins to emerge. Many modern children’s books present ideas about family, authority, and behavior that greatly differ from those found in early literature, of ten in subtle and easily missed ways. Because stories play a powerful role in shaping a child’s values and worldview, the content of the books children read deserves careful attention.
A Study of 4th Grade Readers
A study of 4th-grade readers that spanned a 140 year time period is eye opening. They took readers from 1810 to 1950 and evaluated how many pages out of 25 emphasized a moral lesson, and the change over time is dramatic. In 1810, 16.01 pages out of 25 emphasized a moral lesson. In 1850, that dropped to 12.42 pages. In 1890, 4.19. In 1930, 1.00 page. In 1950, 0.06 pages out of 25 emphasized a moral lesson.
The Portrayal of Family
In my own thorough study of the changes in literature, it is very easy to see that there is a growing trend in books to present parents as absent, uninvolved, stupid, and old-fashioned. Also, there is a trend to display families as dysfunctional and unhappy, and to create child characters that act disrespectfully to parents and are annoyed by their siblings. Books written for children in the 1800s and early 1900s included positive adult family members who played a major role in the story. In fact, I haven’t been able to find a book from that time period that did not have a positive adult as a main character in the book.

Books Today Make Fun of Family

Also, literature today makes fun of family. One of the very best-selling books of our day, probably the most widely read book of all by children, starts with these words:

“I mean I love my family and all, but I’m just not sure we were meant to live together. Maybe it will be different later on when we’re all in different houses and only see each other on holidays.”

How sad! This is an attack on strong families and should be recognized as such. With millions of children reading these books that are filled with potty humor, attacks on family, and disrespectful, shallow behavior, why are we surprised that our nation’s children are becoming more like that?

One of the best-selling books recently for young girls, selling over 10 million copies, starts with these words:

“Sometimes I wonder if my mom is brain dead. Then there are days when I know she is.”

You know that almost makes me want to cry. Families are being destroyed. You look at the statistics; it’s devastating our nation. Books that we are buying for our children and books that our schools are buying and stocking in the libraries are contributing greatly to that destruction, and we don’t even see it.

You may say, “Oh, it’s not that big of a deal.” In fact, the descriptions on Amazon.com for these types of books say, “Adorable illustrations,” or “Lots of laughs.” Parents say, “I’m just so glad my child loves reading anything. It’s just junk food, a little is okay. It’s not a big deal.” I am here to say it is a big deal. It’s not junk food; it’s toxic and damaging. We should be actively fighting these destructive messages, not giving them to our children as entertainment. Look at how the attitude toward siblings has changed in literature.

Attitude Towards Siblings

Here’s a classic book, Five Little Peppers and How They Grew:

Five Little Peppers and How They Grew

“For this brother and sister were everything to each other, and stood loyally together through ‘thick and thin.’”

Here’s a children’s book from the New York Times Best Sellers list today:

“That’s Georgia, my super-nosy, super-obnoxious, super-brat sister.”

Now compare the popular book that I spoke about earlier that starts with the girl wondering if her mom was brain dead or not, to these sentences from the beginning of the classic book, The Railway Children:

The Railway Children

“Mother was almost always there, ready to play with the children, and read to them, and help them to do their home-lessons. Besides this she used to write stories for them while they were at school, and read them aloud after tea, and she always made up funny pieces of poetry for their birthdays and for other great occasions, such as the christening of the new kittens, or the refurnishing of the doll’s house, or the time when they were getting over the mumps.”

Can you believe the difference?

An Attack on High Moral Character

It’s not just family that is being attacked, but high moral character. Our world is flooded today with books that make fun of teachers, principles, learning, and noble character. We give our children books filled with examples of low moral character, and then we turn around and punish them and try to teach them so hard not to have the kind of behavior that’s being modeled in the books they’re reading.

As parents, we should also be aware that many books for children today have very graphic, profane, shocking, violent, and immoral content. One quick example is a current New York Times best-selling book touted as a “must-read for all teenagers.” It has good messages, yes, but they are entwined with the f-word 34 times, the sh-word 25 times, and a lot of other profanity and very crude humor that made me personally sick when I started reviewing that book. Many children’s books contain messages about gender identity or immoral behaviors that plant ideas in children’s minds in powerful ways.

Evaluate What Your Children Read

We are beyond the days when we can let our children read anything recommended at the library or on their book order list, even if it has a cute cover with puppies on it. I am serious. Cute cover? Don’t assume that it’s good for your child. I read the descriptions recently of some books on a Scholastic book order for children, and I was shocked. New books for young children are now going way beyond potty humor and making fun of family.

Parents, this is just the beginning of what is coming. Darkness is attacking through literature, and we must be vigilant. We must choose to see, choose to care, and choose to act. Draw your line, and be brave.

What lessons are books teaching your children?

Children learn by example, and they are learning something every time they read a book.

Many children and parents have lost the ability to even discern what is good and what is not in children’s books, and I was one of those parents. After this whole journey of having my eyes opened, I studied one of the best-selling books that my children loved that I had previously thought was harmless.

In just the first chapter of that book, these were the negative messages that were taught repeatedly as funny and acceptable: making fun of others, calling people fat, making fun of teachers, self put-downs, negativity, hurting animals, selfishness, lying, viewing siblings as annoying, viewing parents negatively, and popularity and self-focused adventure being the center of a successful life.

I see children that have good parents reading this book all the time, and I don’t think they have any idea. I was there. I even read these books out loud to my children. I don’t know why I couldn’t see. I think it’s because I grew up with the same kinds of books. Everyone else was reading them, and they were books brought home from school, so I thought they were fine.

Non character-building attributes found in many of today’s popular children’s books:

Making fun of others
Name calling
Self put-downs
Negativity
Hurting animals
Selfishness
Lying
Viewing siblings as annoying
Viewing parents negatively
Popularity
Being self-focused

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The Good and the Beautiful Book List

If this message resonates with you, we have some great free resources to teach you and support you. Take advantage of our free The Good and Beautiful Book List. We have reviewed thousands of books to find those that are completely clean, wholesome, and beautiful. You can find it on goodandbeautifulbooklist.com. Watch our video, How to Get Children Interested in Good and Beautiful Books. I also highly recommend becoming more educated on this topic by watching our video, How Books Have Changed in the Past Century.

Join Me and Be Brave About Books

Let me conclude by asking you to join me in this mission to be brave about books. Remember the book that I told you about that has the f-word and crude humor all throughout it? Today I was looking at reviews for it, and I couldn’t find a single review where someone expressed concern about the profane and crude content—not one.

Let’s be brave. Let’s open our eyes. Let’s recognize what is good and beautiful and what is not. It’s simple to start. Watch our other videos about books, determine with your family what your standards are, get rid of books that don't measure up, and choose worthwhile books from now on. Do not let your child read a book until you know it is one you can trust. Preview books that your teacher will read in classrooms, and let them know if you don’t approve. Monitor what your child is reading at school, and share this message with all those you love.
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We are losing a whole generation of children that care about literature that is good and beautiful. It is parents that can change this.

I was once in the middle of the outback in Australia at night, and I looked up into the sky. I had never seen anything like it. I could feel the wonder of God in this amazing world He created, and that is the way I feel when I read truly good books.

Back home two months later, I went outside one clear night. I couldn’t see a single star. The sky appeared to be completely black and empty because the lights of the city were blinding me from seeing those amazing stars. Too many books today are dark and stripped of all that is good and beautiful. Don’t set your children under a dark and empty sky. Bring them away from the lights of the world to those amazing star-spangled heavens. Change their lives by giving them books that are rich with nutrients, that take them to where the air is pure and clean, that bring beauty, light, purity, and truth into their lives.