READ ALOUD LENTEN LITERATURE

A good book my husband and I would have had trouble doing without in our years of raising a family was, Making God Real In the Orthodox Christian Home by Fr. Anthony Coniaris.  I love this quote about Lent:

"It is significant that Lent happens to coincide with spring.  I think there is a wonderful lesson for us in this happy coincidence.  Lent should be for all of us a period of placing ourselves in the position where the best things can happen to us...in the presence of Christ, where the Sun of His love and power can shine into our arid souls to bring about a real awakening..."

For many of us, that awakening comes by slowing down, turning off the television, and making more time for daily prayer, spiritual reading, fasting, and participation in the special church services of Lent.  


In our family, we also tried to carefully choose good books to read aloud with our kids during Lent, that would help underscore what we were doing.  


There are the obvious choices of Bible and Saints stories, but today I thought I'd highlight some good literature for kids, that you may not have considered...please let me know if you have any to add!


SIR GIBBIE by George MacDonald, Kathryn Lindskoog. (ages 8-12) From Publisher's Weekly: George MacDonald's 1870s' Sir Gibbie, about a destitute Scottish orphan, was reportedly a favorite of C.S. Lewis's. An edition of the novel, prepared by Kathryn Lindskoog, inaugurates a Classics for Young Readers series, while a companion, Sir Gibbie: A Guide for Teachers and Students by Ranelda Mack Hunsicker, is available for teachers, students and home-schoolers. In the Guide, Hunsicker contends that Sir Gibbie served as a source for Huckleberry Finn, although Mark Twain (a friend of MacDonald's) upended MacDonald's religious message. Noting that previous editions of Gibbie "cut out much of MacDonald's Christian teaching," Hunsicker adds that Lindskoog's goal was "to restore [the book] to its original Christ-centered plot."  (218 pages)


HEIDI by Johanna Spyri, illustrated by Ruth Sanderson. (ages 7-12)  I hope you can find this adaptation with Ruth Sanderson's gorgeous illustrations. In any case, try to get a good unabridged version. Spyri's descriptive telling of Heidi's struggle to learn to read, as well as her relationships with her grandfather, the Alps, the goats, Klara, and Peter and his blind grandmother are not to be missed. What touched me most was the underlying story of the stern grandfather ("Alm Uncle") as a prodigal son figure who has his heart softened by his tender granddaughter. (285 pages)



THE BRONZE BOW by Elizabeth George Speare. (6th grade and up) Newbury Medal Winner. Daniel bar Jamin is driven by only one passion: to avenge his father's death, by driving the Roman legions from his land of Israel. He joins an outlaw band and leads a dangerous life of spying, plotting, and impatiently waiting to seek revenge. Headstrong Daniel is devoid of tenderness and forgiveness, heading down a destructive path toward disaster until he hears the lessons taught by Jesus of Nazareth.  Elizabeth Speare said she wanted to make young adults feel what it would be like to live during the time of Christ. I think she succeeded!

HOW CHOOSING GOOD READ ALOUD BOOKS CAN HELP CULTIVATE YOUNG SOULS...

BOOKS THAT BUILD CHARACTER, by William Kilpatrick and Gregory and Suzanne M. Wolfe, is a wonderful guide for parents, grandparents, and teachers who want to choose worthwhile and imaginative books for children. Honestly, if you could only buy one book on the subject, this would be the one I'd recommend! It's full of good children's stories that are as satifying on an adult level as they are on a child's. The recommended reading list is a comprehensive guide of book summaries, grouped by age level (young, middle, and older readers) and literary genre.

Here are some more of the authors' thoughts on why reading good stories with a moral dimension can help cultivate young souls:

HOW CAN READING ALOUD GOOD BOOKS TO CHILDREN DEVELOP THEIR CHARACTER?

- Stories create an emotional attachment to goodness, or a desire to do the right thing.

- Stories provide a wealth of good examples to kids - the kind of examples that might be missing from some children's day-to-day environments.
- Stories are a good way of introducing "codes of conduct" to kids.
- Stories can help kids make sense out of life.

HOW DO GOOD STORIES HELP CHILDREN LEARN RIGHT FROM WRONG?

Good writing in stories can touch kids on a level where it really matters - their imaginations - by giving them mental pictures: "images". Pictures have a way of staying in children's memories long after parents explanations and admonitions have worn thin. So one of the benefits of good read alouds, whether based in real life or fantasy, is that they save the parent from doing all the reminding! And through the power of the imagination, children can vicariously participate in the stories, sharing with the hero/heroine's choices and challenges.

A great example of this for young readers is The Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter. What child will forget how Peter disobeyed his mother, got sick from being wet and cold in Mr. McGregor's garden, and had to go to bed..."while Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail had bread and milk and blackberries for supper"! (My kids asked for this story over, and over, and over...)

Or, for older readers, what about all the life lessons learned by David as he comes of age in the novel David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens? They will definitely develop an emotional attachment with the young David, as he learns about friendship, kindness, love, and forgiveness from the many colorful characters he encounters!

Here are a few exceptional titles we might have missed or never attempted to read aloud, if it weren't for the fact that they were recommended in BOOKS THAT BUILD CHARACTER:

The Princess and the Goblin, by George MacDonald
Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Jester
Prydain Chronicles, by Lloyd Alexander
Carry on, Mr. Bowditch, by Jean Lee Latham
The Endless Steppe, by Esther Hautzig
Barry the Bravest St. Bernard, by Lynn Hall
Book of Virtues, by William Bennett
Miss Rumphius, by Barbara Clooney
The Bully on Barkham Street, by M. Stoltz
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding