Florida Catholic | My View : Lizette Lantigua

MY VIEW

Worried about the movie? Try reading the book

LIZETTE LANTIGUA | SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA CATHOLIC

Published: 01.11.08

“Let’s prepare our children to face the challenges ahead with a positive outlook, putting the emphasis on God and not the world.”

Have you ever heard the saying, “You are what you eat”? If you eat fried food all the time, it will show. This applies to the books your children read. If they constantly read books about death, disease and a world without hope and without God, that is exactly how they will feel — hopeless.

Take, for example, “The Golden Compass.” E-mails, letters and articles have been quick to point out the possible dangers of this movie, which is based on a book trilogy by a self-proclaimed atheist. Yet how many parents had ever received a warning about the books?

I am told that the movie is a cleaned-up version of the books. But the books already might have reached our children’s hands and put all sorts of ideas in their heads. Do we know if other books on our shelves were written by hurt, bitter or atheist authors and have similar content in their plots?

We tend to put great emphasis on movies, on the graphics rather than the written word. Yet many books for middle school students deal with adult situations and racy subjects. Even if the books don’t go into graphic detail, the imagination of a child can fill in what is missing, with the result being just as harmful.

I often hear adults review or argue about the content of a book for preteens or teenagers from the perspective of an adult. Teenagers view books differently — not always as a whole, but as individual segments. A certain scene, though it might be resolved at the end, can cause teens to have unsettling feelings.

Take “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl,” a wonderful nonfiction book of a Jewish girl’s coming of age while hiding from the Nazis during the Holocaust. Anne maintains her sanity by pouring out her feelings in her diary and trying to keep a cheerful outlook in life. Yet many sixth- and seventh-graders do not have the maturity to read this book because all they remember is a certain page where Anne writes how she believes the body is a beautiful thing, and tells of trying to kiss another girl and touch her inappropriately (the girl refuses her advances).

Make sure you research the books recommended by Sunshine State Books, a list of books that many students in public or Catholic schools may be required to read as part of their literature curriculum. As a parent, it is important that you read or at least skim through a book’s pages and ask your child what the plot is about. This way you can advise the child on touchy topics or discuss your concerns with the teacher.

It is wise also to review many award-winning books, such as the Newbery Medal-winning “The Giver” by Lois Lowry, which deals with a society without God.

One of the most chilling scenes describes how a baby is killed by lethal injection in the skull and then thrown down a trash chute. The killer continues to sing as if nothing has happened, and even the ending of the book is open to interpretation.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a great book for high school students, but not for those in middle school.

Many think that because today’s society deals openly with difficult issues we have to expose our children to them at a young age. But isn’t this kind of overwhelming? Let’s prepare our children to face the challenges ahead with a positive outlook, putting the emphasis on God and not the world.

Purchase the biographies of great saints who had tempting and challenging lives. Make your own required reading list and include books that deal with life’s problems from a Christian perspective, such as the Janette Oke series of books and DVD movies. Parents with several children who are avid readers should do their best to keep up with their reading materials, do research and discuss controversial topics with them. The alternative is similar to eating junk food. In the long run, we will have to deal with being overweight and having high cholesterol. Will our children grow up with the cheerful, positive and hopeful outlook of Christianity or the gloomy outlook of those without God in their lives?

Lantigua is a mom and freelance writer from St. Mark Parish in Southwest Ranches.

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