For years Jenny Phillips, the founder of The Good and the Beautiful, has deeply analyzed books and how they have changed over the past 100–150 years. In this video, Jenny gives her fascinating findings and explains how the changes in books are in turn changing our children. The kind of books that developed the noble character of people like Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Edison are not the kind of books you now see on the best-selling children’s book lists today.
Are popular books today actually harming academics? Are your children really benefiting from the books they are reading? All parents and teachers need to watch this video!
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Comments
Love that g+b books are quality and teach our values!
I think we noticed that our books have lost a lot of good over the years, but we haven’t seen how much beauty we’ve lost. Everything used to be so descriptive and beautiful! It seems to parallel the decline of our art from realism to abstract.
Thank you!! I can’t wait for my older children to hear the difference in the books from today vs the older books. I have tried to explain this to them and how their writing needs more detail and not constantly be simple sentences. 🙂
I found the comparisons of the first 5 sentences of books written 150 years apart fascinating. It is no wonder that it is difficult for kids, and adults as well, to comprehend much of the beautiful language used in the scriptures. Even the way we talk to one another has become simple, dumbed down, and lazy. There is no doubt that the language used in more contemporary books has contributed to the decrease in comprehension and the ability to both speak and write in a complex and descriptive manner.
I’m super curious which series of books (with the mouse as a main character) Jenny is speaking about near the end of the video.
We love your books!