# Choosing Books That Nourish Your Child's Soul



## LadyFlynt (Feb 4, 2007)

Tonight, hubby and I were talking about some things we have rode the line on a bit. I'm a natural bibliophile (I collect books...of all sorts). I try to weed out the bad stuff, but I also try to collect certain things...some for future reading, some because I've enjoyed them in the past, some because they were simply passed onto me, and others because they are "classics" or "must haves". It's been weighing on my mind lately that there are some books on my shelves that simply don't need to be there...so the plan was to go through some books. Also to seek advice on books that I was unsure of (I know I will still have quite a collection AFTER weeding through them). I went to an online aquaintance's blog and linked to her website. There I found this article. She gives permission at the bottom to reprint it in full, so I have simply copied and pasted the article here. I felt it suited and hopefully others will glean from it as well. I'm open to discussion on "what are nurishing books, what are not, and why".




> A Woman that Fears the Lord
> Choosing Books that Nourish your Child's Soul
> Do you notice how quickly the days are passing, Mothers? I often tease my husband and ask if the scripture that talks about the days being shortened in the last days means that each day is literally less hours. ( He just *amuses* me and smiles).Does it seem as if the day when the house will be empty is a million years away? I can promise you it’s closer than you would care to know. Think back for a moment of when you once held your first born in your arms. Did it not seem as if it were yesterday? The baby that I held in my arms many years ago now towers above this mothers head. The time seems as if it were only a few short hours instead of nearly 21 years. My daughter is married and taking care of her own husband. Our Lord is the only one who knows the days that he has given us to train our children. We may only have today to give them the message and hope of eternal life. Are we redeeming the time by capturing every opportunity to present the message of the cross to the precious souls that have been entrusted into our care? Are we being faithful in the duty assigned us to ‘shepherd’ their souls. Or are we allowing the minutes to slip away by filling their days full of book knowledge which may crowd out any premium time to be effected by godly literature.
> 
> ...


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Feb 4, 2007)

Good thoughts, Colleen! To feed our children that which nourishes their souls and not that which will stimulate their sinful natures is the duty of every parent. I was just reading this evening Thomas Lye's sermon on Prov. 22.6 which highlights this very well. 

_The New England Primer_ was, and is, a great example of this. It teaches children that time is precious and is to be redeemed to the honor and glory of the Redeemer. There are many more. I compiled a list of saints who died young with the goal of inspiring young people, and old, to redeem the precious time that they have. There is a time for playing and having fun. Childhood play is of great value. But folly and idle wasting of time, which children are so prone to, is something that parents should be on guard against, and the world of good literature which exists, is something that parents should, I think, guide their children into for it has profit in this life and the next. To see children with a love of reading and learning, who put first God's Word and make it the rule of their pleasures and pastimes, is a truly wonderful thing.

On another thread, I posted a list of well-known children's books throughout the centuries which, taken together, reflect the values of the ages from which they came, and the Puritan era especially shows how they viewed the importance of moral, Biblical education:



VirginiaHuguenot said:


> It is interesting to see what books were written for children over the centuries, and how the educational priorities have changed, as outlined in the table of contents for _From Instruction to Delight: An Anthology of Children's Literature to 1850_ by Patricia Demers:
> 
> New readings are indicted with *; List of Illustrations; Preface; Acknowledgements; Early Lessons at Home and School; From The Colloquy (c. 1000) - Aelfric; * From On the Properties of Things (c.1200) - Bartholomew the Englishman; The ABC of Aristotle (c. 1430) - Anonymous; * From The Schoole of Vertue and Booke of Good Nurture (1557) - Francis Seager; * From The Boke of Nurture, or Schoole of Good Manners (1577) - Hugh Rhodes; * From A Jewell House of Art and Nature (1594) - Hugh Plat; The Hornbook; The Battledore; DOMESTIC WRITING: JUVENILIA; * 'A new yeres gift' (1581) - William Paget; * 'George Bercklay to his grandfather' (1610) and 'George to Mrs Cave his mothers wayting woman' (c. 1613) - George Berkeley; * Letter to her Father: Mary Downing to Emmanuel Downing (1635) - Mary Downing; MOTHERS' ADVICE AND GRIEF; * From Miscelanea, Meditations, Memoratives (1604) - Elizabeth Grymeston; * From The Mothers Blessing (1616) - Dorothy Leigh; * From The Mothers Legacie to her Unborne Childe (1624) - Elizabeth Joscelin; * From A Ladies Legacie to her Daughters (1645) - Elizabeth Richardson; * 'On the death of my first and dearest childe' (1655) - Katherine Philips; * 'On the Death of my dear Daughter' (1703) - Lady Mary Chudleigh; WRITING OF CLERGYMEN AND SCHOOLMASTERS; * From This Historie of Four-Footed Beastes (1607) - Edward Topsell; From Orbis Sensualium Pictus (1659) - Johan Amos Comenius; Puritan 'Hell-Fire': Warnings and Warmth; From Milk for Babes (1646) - John Cotton; * 'Upon my Son Samuel' (1657) and 'In reference to her Children' (1659) - Anne Bradstreet; From A Token for Children (1672) - James Janeway; * From War with the Devil (1673) - Benjamin Keach; The New England Primer (1683-1830) - Benjamin Harris; From A Book for Boys and Girls (1686) - John Bunyan; Lyrical Instruction: Isaac Watts and his Contemporaries; From Divine Songs (1715) and Moral Songs (1740) - Isaac Watts; * From Fables (1727) - John Gay; * From Poems on Several Occasions (1734) - Mary Barber; Chapbooks and Penny Histories; An Elegy on the Death and Burial of C*ck Robin (1744); The Interesting Story of the Children in the Wood; From The Pleasant History of Thomas Hickathrift; From The Life and Death of Tom Thumb; The Trial of an Ox, for Killing a Man; From The Riddle Book; Boreman, Cooper, and Newbery: 'Instruction with Delight'; * From The Gigantick History (1741) - Thomas Boreman; From A Little Pretty Pocket-Book (1744) - John Newbery; From Nurse Truelove's New Year's Gift (1755) - John Newbery; From The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes (1765) - John Newbery; Rational Moralists; From The Governess (1749) - Sarah Fielding; * From The Adventures of a Pincushion (c. 1780) - Mary Ann Kilner; * From Poems on Various Subjects (1783) - Jane Cave; * From Her Journal Book (1783) - Anne 'Nancy' Shippen Livingston; From The History of Sandford and Merton (1783) - Thomas Day; From Cobwebs to Catch Flies (c. 1783) - Lady Eleanor Fenn; From Original Stories (1788) - Mary Wollstonecraft; * From Mental Improvement (1794) - Priscilla Wakefield; * From The Village School (c. 1795) - Dorothy Kilner; 'The Purple Jar' from Early Lessons (1801) - Maria Edgeworth; From The Young Emigrants (1826) - Catharine Parr Traill; From The Affectionate Parent's Gift (1828) - Henry Sharpe Horsely; From Mary's Grammar (1835) - Jane Marcet; From Rollo at School (1839) - Jacob Abbott; 'Janetta and her Jujubes' from Farewell Tales (1840) - Barbara Hofland; From Make the Best of It (1843) - Samuel Griswold Goodrich/Peter Parley (pseudonym); Sunday School Moralists; * From Early Piety (1777) - George Burder; From Hymns in Prose for Children (1781) and Lessons for Children: Part IV (1788) - Anna Letitia Barbauld; From Fabulous Histories (1786) and The Charity School Spelling Book (c. 1798) - Sarah Trimmer; * From Divine Hymns (1790) and Instructions for Children (1794) - Rowland Hill; * Black Giles, the Poacher: Part II (1796) - Hannah More; From The History of the Fairchild Family (1818) - Mary Martha Sherwood; * From The Peep of Day (1833) - Favell Lee Mortimer; From Flowers That Never Fade (1838) - Lucy Leman Rede; * From Dutch Tiles (1842) - Mrs Dalby; Harbingers of the Golden Age; From Hymns for the Amusement of Children (1772) and 'My Cat Jeoffrey' from Jubilate Agno (1758/9-1763) - Christopher Smart; From Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1794) - William Blake; From The Infant's Library (c. 1800) - John Marshall; From Original Poems for Infant Minds (1804-5) and Rhymes for the Nursery (1806) - Ann Taylor Gilbert and Jane Taylor; From The Daisy (1807) - Elizabeth Turner; The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast (1807) - William Roscoe; The Peacock 'At Home' (1807) - Catherine Ann Dorset; * From Poems (1808) - Felicia Dorothea Browne; From Poetry for Children (1809) - Charles and Mary Lamb; From Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation (1813) - Unknown; 'A Visit from Saint Nicholas' (1823) - Clement Clarke Moore; From Poems for Our Children (1830) - Sarah Josepha Hale; The Story of the Three Bears (1831) - Eleanor Mure; From Sketches of Natural History (1834) - Mary Botham Howitt; From Holiday House: A Series of Tales (1839) - Catherine Sinclair; From New Nursery Songs for All Good Children (1843) - Eliza Lee Follen; From The Book of Nonesense (1846) - Edward Lear; From The English Struwwelpeter (1848) - Heinrich Hoffman; * The Sad Tale of Mrs Mole and Mrs Mouse (c. 1849) - Jane Cotton Boucher de Montizambert; Bibliography; Index


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## Ezekiel3626 (Feb 4, 2007)

LadyFlynt, thank you for this link. The information on the website seems very edifying. Definately food for thought.


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## jenney (Feb 5, 2007)

We love 
Two Wealthy Farmers (fiction) but some people might find it too preachy. We don't find it so.
and
Lambs Safely Folded--similar to a Token for Children, about children who loved Christ and died young. The stories are sweet and some make me cry, but it is good for sobering young souls to consider well the brevity of life.

Along the lines of what is good/helpful/acceptable for our children to read, we do read non-nourishing books. We call them exercise. We read them together (sometimes aloud) and discuss them as we go along. It has been a great experience in discernment. We don't read trash (and sometimes we'll quit halfway through because something highly recommended turns out to be awful) but we do read books others would consider questionable. We read Laura Ingalls Wilder, the sacred cow of homeschoolers, and have great talks about the negative way she portrays her pastor, the profaning of the Sabbath, the unbiblical way she portrays wifely submission, the wrong motives for going to church (just to have a social time and enjoy singing songs with friends), all sorts of things that are subtle, but which influence young minds.

Yesterday my 11 year old said, "CS Lewis must have been an arminian because when asked to reveal himself to the unbelieving dwarves, Aslan said, 'I'll do what I can, but I can't make them believe.'"

I would love more books that nourish the souls of my children! Good article with lots to consider!


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## Ezekiel3626 (Feb 5, 2007)

jenney said:


> Yesterday my 11 year old said, "CS Lewis must have been an arminian because when asked to reveal himself to the unbelieving dwarves, Aslan said, 'I'll do what I can, but I can't make them believe.'"



Ah, the mind of a child!


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## Theoretical (Apr 2, 2007)

jenney said:


> We love
> Two Wealthy Farmers (fiction) but some people might find it too preachy. We don't find it so.
> and
> Lambs Safely Folded--similar to a Token for Children, about children who loved Christ and died young. The stories are sweet and some make me cry, but it is good for sobering young souls to consider well the brevity of life.
> ...


Ooh, very nice.

When/If I end up with children, Lord willing, I will have to keep that approach in mind. That is a greatly needed approach, especially so that they can actually read and address some of the more controversial material they'll address during and after our shepherding of them. Given that it often still takes me at least 2 good reads before I can pluck out good or bad parts, this sort of training would have been most helpful.


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