God knows I’ve screwed up in raising my kids about every way there is to screw up. But if there’s one thing I’m proud of, it’s that I’ve got two readers. They both read for pleasure, and at far above their grade level.
This might be partly due to the fact that we have hung on to the nightly out-loud reading ritual far past the age where most families let it go. I really wanted to introduce my kids to some of the literature I loved as a child, and this was a mutually satisfying way to do it. Some of what we’ve read over the past few years:
The Hobbit - Lord of the Rings series
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Taran Wanderer series
The Harry Potter series
His Dark Materials trilogy
We just finished “The Return of the King” this week, as a matter of fact. Some of it was a bit heavy going (JRRT did love his landscapes), but the language is beautiful read aloud. I think I enjoyed it as much as they did.
My wife and I read LotR out loud. It was a good experience.
We’re really enjoying Farmer Giles of Ham now, a collection of two short stories Tolkein wrote.
So what’s the verdict on His Dark Materials? Did you find it as anti-Christian as some folks?
Mark Goodyear
October 29th, 2007
“His Dark Materials” is certainly anti-church-establishment, and it’s not an enormous stretch to infer some anti-Christian sentiment. But it is brilliantly imagined and written, so I was willing to overlook/forgive a few things that could be construed as offensive. For the kids, a brief parenthetical “I don’t agree with this, by the way” addendum to anything a bit off-key seemed to suffice.
Satchel
October 29th, 2007
“God knows I’ve screwed up in raising my kids about every way there is to screw up.” … but you are doing the judging. Your kids seem to be turning out just fine, so consider letting god do the judging. (Now, if I could take that advice for myself …)
vhaecky
April 5th, 2008