Providing a nutritional diet, devoid of harmful additives for their child, is something every caring
parent does, or should find time for, because the consequences of fast food and unnecessary additives
have been made clear to us all, so there is little excuse for ignorance.
When it comes to food for thought; information, fact or fiction that our children consume in to their
heads, are we so particular? Do we ever stop to analyse children's books to comprehend the content and
the essential message? To scan a bookstore in this way can be quite an unpleasant surprise, as it reveals
one area in the environment of the modern child, where the food for thought is unwholesome, poisonous
…and even dangerous.
Surely the motive for any child's book is to impart a message of some benefit to them and ultimately
society, of which they will grow to be a part of. You would expect children's fiction, for example,
to have some positive food for thought within, whether it be imparted through image, or print, via an
adventurous, serious or humorous tale.
You would think that the development of a child's thinking would be paramount, treated as most precious,
and that it would not be legal to present anything below standard that could enter in to a child's head to
corrupt, infect, and even encourage any kind of disease of thinking. That it would be considered such a
heinous act of irresponsibility, that every book that contained any work that could taint or mar the
thought of a child, would not be allowed to be placed on a shelf in a department labelled 'Children's'
Books' and that the Author would be questioned as to what his or her intentions exactly were.
Filling a child's head with illogical nonsense, immoral concepts and evil acts, must have a consequence,
just as one would expect the teaching of good standards to.
A few years ago I made a study of a local bookstore and was horrified at the literature considered
suitable for children. I made some complaints, but they were not accepted.
Perhaps there is much ignorance regarding the subject of thought. Just like the food we eat, the public have had to be educated to be selective, particularly with children whose bodies are growing and developing. It is now easier to deny the child the bright sweets he cries for, because we know it is empty of nutritional content, and this awareness has helped us to make better choices. Likewise with literature, any old book will just not do, only those which provide positive food for thought.
So as we have not reached the stage of public awareness regarding the detrimental effects of a sea of polluted children's fiction, we can only continue to pass on our concerns, until the day arrives when this type of irresponsibility will no longer be acceptable.
This is the brief study I made of my local bookstore some years ago. Has anything changed to date? The subject areas that concerned me, and they appeared frequently in children's books, were horror and witchcraft:-
Story time
Recently I went to the children's fiction section at well-known, high street, bookshop. After spending an hour or so browsing
through the many books I just couldn't stand it any more, and feeling a bit sick and sad I left.
The following is an outline of books they stocked by a number of different authors. Firstly I looked at the 8 to 12 section, it was stacked with a mass of totally unsuitable material such as:- The Haunting Hour- the front cover showed a cracked skull in an hourglass, beneath the caption "chills in the dead of night". Johnny The Dead- the front cover showed a tombstone with a hand holding a phone emerging from the grave. Death Domain- front cover showing an eerie house and a skull against a black background. The Witch of Lagg- front cover- a dark house, ghostly woman and goat on a fiery orange background. The Beggars Curse- picturing dark buildings under the sea on the front with the caption " a terrifying legacy from the past. Bewitched - " tales of witchcraft and Wizardry throughout the ages and other dubious books such as Polter goose, The Midnight Folk, Toms Midnight Garden and The Psychic zone- with stories on the paranormal.
Some authors had a series of books with macabre themes-R. Stine for example had his goosebump selection
of ghastly looking books with titles such as The Mummy Walks, Headless Halloween, Revenge R. US and
Monster Blood. There are 62 in this series. To add to this he now has the Nightmare series with more
skulls and evil looking pictures on the covers.
Then there was a group of books about Sabrina The Teenage Witch and I counted 29 different titles in
this series.
A whole shelf was given over to Harry Potter books, and also a two foot by five foot stand, both sides full of the games and toys. There was a book explaining the magical world of Harry Potter which gives background information about" real life wizards and ancient magic spells ", though it stated it was not approved by J.K Rowling. But there were also Harry Potter look-alike books, the front covers showing a similar bespectacled boy with titles such as The Bad Beginning and The Miserable Mill from a series entitled Unfortunate events.
There was a wealth of horror and thrillers in this 8 - 12 section, but also a great number of odd books with titles such as Animorph and these had a whole shelf given over to the many in this series. Every book had a front cover showing a child morphing in to a different animal. Then there was Scribbleboy- about a graffiti artist, Johnny and The Bomb, I was a Rat, and How I Eat Fried worms- with a front cover showing a boy doing just that surrounded by condiments. Then there was a selection of books by various authors with these types of titles :- The Crush, Sleep Overs, Girls Out Late, Girls In Love, and Boys on the Brain. Whilst there were some nice looking books on animal stories and a shelf of classics like Jane Ayre,, the latter were displayed on the bottom row.
Right next to this section was the teenage fiction, approximately three quarters of which were horror, witchcraft or thriller themes, too many to go in to detail about, but many seemed darker than those on the 8 - 12 area. The point horror for example series seemed to have even more ghastly covers, written by a selection of authors and many by R. Stine again. There were a load of Buffy the vampire Slayer books. Then The Blair witches series again with horrible covers. The Darron Shan series had all black cover and titles like Tunnels of Blood. The Circle of Three series had one book called What The Cards Say. One large black book was entitled His Dark Materials and I felt like crying, but it went on. I noticed also there was a great wealth of fiction with titles like Angus, Thongs and full frontal Snogging, Letters of Love, Coping With Boys, Secrets of Relationship Success and Mates, dates and Cosmic Kisses.
Sadly the 5 - 8 fiction section which I lastly looked at was right next to all of this and was not devoid
of bad influences either. There were the Horrid Henry Series with titles like the Mummies Curse and the
Haunted House and other strange books like The Worst Witch, Warlock Winston, Dog on a Broomstick and
Chocolate Magic.
I left the shop feeling quite disturbed by all this. I came to the conclusion that WH Smiths children's
book section was not a place to take your child, and parents should either hunt for the appropriate
fiction in this shop with out their child with them, or consider writing their own children's books.
Is your book store any better?
Copyright 2005 The Erasmus Foundation.
The Erasmus Foundation, Moat House, Banyards Green, Laxfield, Suffolk. IP13 8ER. Tel: 01986 798682.