Trends in Children’s Books

Mrs. Klein is reading a picture book to her children at bedtime when she realizes with shock that it contains subject matter that she feels is inappropriate for children. She stops reading it and switches to another book. Mrs. Katz would like to allow her fourth-grade son to read the series that he claims “everyone” is reading but cannot find time in her busy day to pre-read it for him. Mrs. Smith pretty much allows her children to read from the library whatever they want but is plagued by an uncomfortable feeling that children’s books are not what they used to be. She wishes she knew how to guide their choices.

All three of the above are true stories. If you have experienced similar feelings, you are not alone. As a children’s librarian, I have spent many hours working to articulate guidelines and develop resources to help parents navigate the new world of today’s children’s literature. The above examples illustrate what I call the “literacy dilemma,” a predicament that has intensified over the last 15 to 20 years. This dilemma occurs when parents want their child to read and speak English but do not want their child exposed to certain aspects of today’s culture and values. Parents themselves may have warm memories of reading classic books when they were young and may be unaware of the dreadful content of today’s children’s books. It is important to realize that as society changes so does children’s literature. In order for concerned parents to find what they feel is appropriate reading material for their family, they need both 1) a clearer understanding of the history of children’s publishing, and 2) the ability to form a concept in their minds of the root problems afflicting the “unkosher” books. In other words, they need to see the forest, not the trees.

A Brief History of Children’s Literature

An informed parent is an empowered parent, and the more aware you are about the children’s book publishing world, the more skill you will have to navigate through to those (few) clean, kosher, inspiring, and enriching children’s books that are still being written and published today.

Children’s literature as we know it – in the sense of literature to entertain or to enhance imagination – did not exist prior to the 20th century. Youth reading material principally existed to frighten children into proper conduct and obedience. Fiction books prior to about 1900, with very few exceptions, were written for adults. Then between 1900 and the early 1960s a new type of writing blossomed: children’s books designed to enrich children and give them pleasure. The market for these books was small. Only a few thousand copies of each book would be printed, and those were mailed out to the public libraries across America. The early juvenile divisions of major publishing houses were rather sleepy backwaters. The editors – mostly women with a sharp eye out for propriety – had the freedom to choose what they felt was worthy material. The times were different, and children’s books were not expected to bring in a lot of money. Single-digit profits were the norm.

Those drowsy days have passed. Social and political, not to mention geopolitical, upheavals taking place between 1960 and today have upended and scrambled those old juvenile divisions. Book publishing today is squarely under the eye of Wall Street. Children’s books, which were largely delivered to the local library in the first half of the 20th century, are now hawked directly to the public, through bookstores and online. Today, a children’s book needs to demonstrate its ability to be colorful, zippy (possibly suggestive) and to fly quickly off the shelves into the hands of paying consumers. MBAs, attuned to sales, are the ultimate decision-makers over what will be published for children. While the publisher had little pressure previously to turn a profit and could publish a book that would enrich children, current books are chosen to sell to children. Branding and marketing are huge concerns in children’s publishing today. A book series such as Harry Potter is treated by a corporation in the same manner that Cheerios and Coca Cola are.

Since the mid-1990s, huge mergers have guaranteed that most children’s publishing is contained within the clutches of a few vast corporations, such as ABC, CBS, 21st Century Fox, and Disney. A bestseller is likely full of crude humor, chutzpah, and, increasingly, “woke” brainwashing. While publishers may protest that they are trying to publish worthy and enriching material, the results are otherwise, and the corporate concern for the bottom line exposes their hollow claims. In short, clean books don’t sell.

The market forces and social mores surrounding those old juvenile publishing departments, which produced perennial favorites such as Make Way for Ducklings, The Story of Ping, Curious George, and Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, are gone.

How to Navigate your Way to a Kosher Book

After much research, I have concluded that there are two overall problems that secular books may exhibit. All of the tens, even hundreds, of problems with secular kids’ books can be incorporated into one of these two groupings.

The first problem a book may have is overexposure to non-Jewish culture, which I call “the problem of cultural literacy.”

When children learn to read, they strive for fluency and literacy. “Fluency” is language proficiency, which means to sound out the word and know the dictionary definition. “Literacy” is the ability to use language to communicate. A literate reader can read with a deep understanding of the text and the idioms, like “let the cat out of the bag.” So, what then is cultural literacy? It is familiarity with the mainstays of a given culture, resulting in shared background information (including awareness of areas such as fables, arts, entertainment, music, family, education, history, and religion). In order for a person to be truly fluent in a language, he or she must grasp some degree of cultural literacy.

Familiarity with a given culture will arise over time with consistent exposure to and participation in that culture. Speaking as an Orthodox librarian, I see “exposure” and “participation” as two different things. A child reading a book is “exposed” to an item that he may never participate in, and it may be good or bad for him to be exposed to it, depending on the item! Reading about an item of non-Jewish culture in a book could be helpful, in the sense of adding to a child’s knowledge, or could be harmful in the sense of subtly infusing him with thought patterns and assumptions that are foreign to Torah.

The term “cultural literacy” was coined in the early 1980s by E. D. Hirsch, a Virginia university professor. Why? American education in the 1970s was trending towards teaching kids “how to think” but not giving them actual information – as if memorizing dates and battles was somehow a remnant of a hopelessly out-of-date one-room schoolhouse. But educators went too far, and thus in the 1970s the USA produced a whole generation that knew “how” to think but had no actual knowledge! By the early 1980s, Professor Hirsch found that his incoming university freshmen were so ignorant of their own (Western) culture that they lacked the common knowledge needed to learn on a university level. Hirsch addressed this issue in his book Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know (c.1987).

With apologies to the professor, let’s appropriate his concept: Whereas Hirsch recommended more cultural literacy, we may prefer less because our precious Jewish children, the focus of our national future, need to absorb our Torah values and culture! Although a minimal familiarity with the surrounding culture is part of literacy in any language, most parents in our circles hope that said exposure will be limited. (This is actually an area where the Jewish community’s interests overlap with those of other faith communities.)

Ask yourself how comfortable you are with cultural literacy? I am going to guess that most of my readers would feel comfortable with the topics of, say, George Washington or the Civil War. But what about Babe Ruth, Cinderella, or Star Wars? What about alternative lifestyles, Mickey Mouse, or Frozen? What about the latest hashtags and memes? Where does your family draw the line when it comes to the commonly shared knowledge that is called cultural literacy?

It is more hazardous for children to read books these days as our society’s sensibilities become less refined. Books for preschoolers embrace topics that once would have been off-limits even for middle school. Given today’s toxic secular culture, the challenge of protecting, yet educating, a child is far greater. Moreover, while there may be some readily identifiable lines that cannot be crossed, such as nivel peh, deciding the amount of the surrounding culture to which a parent is willing to expose their child remains a personal and highly subjective decision.

The second problem a book may have is: Lack of adult role-modeling, which I call “the problem of dysfunctional support systems.”

This problem is not new and is in truth essential to all fiction. The fact is, the main character must be granted free will or it won’t be much of a story. When an author composes a work of fiction, he or she is in essence the creator of a world and, as a creator, must show that the main character in that world has free will. But the main character in a children’s book is…a child! The age of the character in the book is the same as the child meant to read the book. If the child reading the book is 9 to 11 years old, then the character in the book is also 9 to 11 years old. So the rules are: 1) the character must be a child, and 2) the character must have free will. Putting these two rules together what we get is a lack of adult role models in the books.

This lack of adult role models has always been a feature. It is actually completely integral to the very nature of storytelling. Think of Goldilocks: no parents in that story. Nor is there a parent in Little Red Riding Hood or Alice in Wonderland. Alice goes down that rabbit hole alone. Children having adventures alone, therefore, is not new at all. All kids’ books get rid of the adults! The only change today is how an author gets rid of the adults. In books written long ago, the parents were done away with in a respectful way. Perhaps they were on a trip, at the office, or maybe at war. Or magic whisked the child away temporarily. In modern stories, parents are “missing” too: They are divorced, depressed, seriously dysfunctional, abusive, emotionally distant, chronically angry, or hopelessly foolish – and, of course, the all-time classic, found in stories new or old, deceased!

And so, those who are checking children’s books should look to avoid problem number one, extensive exposure to troubling aspects of surrounding culture, as well as problem number two, portrayals of dysfunctional support systems. Put another way, if you find a book with somewhat acceptable non-Jewish culture and healthy adult role model structures, you have almost certainly found the best secular children’s book that you are ever going to find.

A Step-by-Step Approach to Finding Kosher Books

If I were going to improve someone’s swing in baseball or stroke in swimming, I would break down the new skill into small bits: the stance, the angle, etc. If I want to improve your ability to select a children’s book I also need to break it down. I call this system: Avoid, Find, and Check.

Avoid

There are five categories of books to avoid as you begin your search.

1) Avoid books written after 1960: As explained, both the financial and social underpinnings of the old juvenile departments of publishers changed after 1960. Every decade since then has seen an increase in questionable content. Obviously, many lovely books for children were written after that date, too. But this rule of thumb will give parents an “insider edge” that is useful. For example, The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner was written in 1942 but has been reissued with up-to-date covers (and an App!). Despite the cool new covers, knowing that the book was written in 1942 signals us that the content will likely be more appropriate.

2) Avoid the bestseller list: Since clean books don’t sell well, bestsellers are rarely clean. In the publishing industry, the term “frontlist” means a book that is newly published this year. (It may also mean an old book that has been reissued as part of the release of a new movie.) Frontlist bestsellers are peddled at Target or at the airport. To find the suitable fiction you desire, you’ll need to look a little harder than that.

3) Avoid books with multiple platform marketing: This means that the book is not the only thing being offered to your child. There are also an online game, a movie, a TV show, a toy, a sound track, and, probably, a water bottle! Corporations know that “digital natives” (i.e. your children) respond best to multiplatform marketing campaigns. In short, paper books don’t sell. A “book” (you can hardly term some of these products a book) that is being promoted this aggressively to children is unlikely to be a kosher book, just as a breakfast cereal shelved close to a child’s eye-level and with cartoon characters on the box is unlikely to be a healthy cereal. I cannot stress enough that most publishers care only about their bottom line.

4) Avoid dysfunctional plot conflicts: A story, to be a story, must portray movement through a conflict. The conflict must be attractive, thrilling, and gripping. The most alluring conflicts are secrecy, teasing, anger, violence, or desire. The market today will support more edgy depictions. (It always goes back to the market.)

5) Avoid libraries: Whether you literally avoid the library or not is up to you. But my name badge at this year’s American Library Association (ALA) convention said “Libraries Transform,” and they are correct. Libraries do transform. Who is in charge of transforming your family?

The ALA, first formed in 1876 to unite and support librarians, gradually developed in the 20th century into a social force promoting intellectual freedom. But over time, the ALA Council began to promote a very, very socially liberal agenda and oppose all forms of censorship. The ALA 2019 convention programming included a session titled: “Subversive Activism: Creating Social Change through Libraries, Children’s Literature, and Art.”

A library is a great tool yet a tool that must be wielded carefully. The local library is packed with valuable services which you paid for with your tax dollars, including free internet, free scanning, free ancestry research, free language programs, and much more. I love our librarians in particular, who have gone out of their way to be as sensitive as possible to our needs. But the fact that the national umbrella organization has moved so far to the left socially since the 1960s should cause all parents to be extremely careful about bringing their children there or letting them read what they find there.

Find

Let’s discuss finding books. There are six ways to find worthy books without looking at the bestseller list. (Of course, by now you know that it is best to avoid the bestseller list.) Don’t worry about checking them yet. Just start finding them. The six resources are search engines, professional journals, blogs, public libraries online, booksellers, and awards.

1) Using a search engine is a convenient way to find classic children’s books. Two search engines are: www.google.com or https://duckduckgo.com/. Begin by searching online for “best children’s books of --” and then fill in a time period. For example: “Best children's books of 1920s.” You will find lists of classics from that decade. Get creative and use terms such as “middle grade classics of the 1950s” or “best classic books for girls 1910s.” You may also search Wikipedia, which has lists, such as “List of children’s literature writers” and “List of children’s classic books.”

2) Professional journals are magazines for publishers and librarians. Because much of their content is available online free of charge, everyone can take advantage of them. There are four websites that I find interesting:

• Publishers Weekly : https://www.publishersweekly.com/
• School Library Journal: http://www.slj.com/#_
• Kirkus Reviews: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/
• The Horn Book: http://www.hbook.com/#_

These sites discuss and review very high-quality children’s literature that you may never otherwise see. Best of all, reading their reviews is an excellent way to rule out inappropriate books.

3) A blog is a website run by someone who wants to speak their mind on a given subject. Two blogs that have amazing lists are “What Do We Do All Day” and “Goodreads.” Goodreads is like a Facebook for book lovers. I actually keep a Kosher Book List of my own on Goodreads. My account is called “checkthebook” and parents are welcome to view it at www.goodreads.com. (See “find or invite members” on the upper right. In the box, type “checkthebook” then click the search button.)

4) Anyone can use a public library website from anywhere. Pick any city. Most library websites have good lists of children’s books, by grade level, and also outlines of each book’s plot. There is no guarantee that these are kosher books. One is simply trying to cut through the marketing fog to find a well-written book. (Checking if the book is for your family, based on your sensitivities, comes later.) Library websites are a gold mine of lists and plot summaries which you can use when you do not have your children with you.

Some examples of library websites are: the New York, NY public library (https://www.nypl.org/books-music-movies); Baltimore County library https://www.bcpl.info/; and Saratoga Springs, FL (www.sspl.org/children/booklists/).

5) Booksellers are what you need when you are searching for old classics. Both Amazon and eBay sell used books, but I like to buy from www.thriftbooks.com which has good lists of classic children’s books.

6) Some awards are given to well-written books, but some awards are merely an advertising gimmick. Still, it is useful to look at lists of past award winners. There are awards for historical fiction, new authors, illustrations, and more. One type is voted on by the elementary children of one state. (Maryland’s is called the “Black-eyed Susan Award.”)

The most famous juvenile book award in America is the John Newbery Medal, which is almost 100 years old. There is one gold and a couple silvers per year, presented to the author of a middle-grade fiction book. My 1960 cutoff, described above, applies here as well. I feel that most Newbery winners since 1960 are not appropriate for us. I have put 10 out of the last 140 Newbery winners into our school library. (Not a great average, but I take what I get.) Five of those are:

• Sarah Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (1986 Gold Medal)
• The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman (1987 Gold Medal)
• Because of Win-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (2001 Silver Medal)
• A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park (2002 Gold Medal)
• Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus (2011 Silver Medal)

Check

Finally we come to step three: check the book. By now you have avoided frontlist bestsellers and movie tie-ins, you have found a list of interesting titles, and you are ready to check if the book is kosher for your family.

Methods of checking the book fall into two categories: 1) What you can do by yourself with the book in your hand, and 2) What you can do online.

With the book in your hand, you can read the whole book! Sorry, busy people, but that is the only foolproof method. If your time is limited, try this:

• Flip over the title page to see the copyright date on the back. A large part of my system is based on awareness of the date the book was written.
• Notice the Library of Congress subject list.
• Next, read the inside front flap, which has a plot summary. (Often you can rule out the book right there.)
• Read the inside back flap to see a short bio of the author. Does he or she seem a decent person?
• Read the first two pages to see what happened to the parents in the story. Almost every book will describe the missing parents within two pages.
• Read a random page or two in the middle, and read the ending.

The above takes about four minutes and gives you a cursory sense of the book.

Online, you can go to a very useful site called Common Sense Media (www.commonsensemedia.org). You can see from the “org” that this is a not-for-profit website. This site reviews books, movies, video games, and more. They specify if the book is violent, has slang, is crude, etc.

Many people are aware of the “Secular Booklist” at Torah Umesorah but are unaware that the site has moved. The web address now is relocated to https://kosherbooks.org/ and the new website is easier to use. The reviewers give details and page numbers so that you can make your own choices for your family. It is a large list, yet I have found many kosher books that are not listed on this site because today’s book industry is so huge. Hundreds of books come out every year, have their moment in the sun, and fade away. So if the book you are checking is not there, don’t give up yet.

Last of all, just google the book you are checking. This will reveal many things, such as, is the book considered controversial? Has it ever been made into a movie? Was the author hoping to promote some kind of social message? Is there a plot summary available?

Things to Look For

Whether you check in person, online, or both, you need to be alert to key elements. First is the aforementioned problem of cultural literacy.

• Is there objectionable language, overemphasis on broken families, TV, movies, rock music, internet, and other media?
• Do you feel okay with the tone? For example, sometimes an otherwise acceptable book has an indefinable underlying tone that adults are stupid.
• Does the book glorify street culture, negative behavior, or inappropriate boy/girl relationships?
• Are there descriptions of other religions that are beyond your comfort level?
• What is the message of the story: i.e., does dishonesty pay?
• Does the book subscribe to the trend of the moment: “normalizing” alternative lifestyles by including them in children’s books?

Then there is the problem of dysfunctional support systems.

• The method by which the adults are done away with (literally or figuratively) is important for you to notice and think about. Are they dead? Are the parents gone in the sense that the kids do not obey them?
• Do the characters admire any authority figures (like a supportive neighbor or coach)? Do they lie to adults?
• It used to be that only teen-level books had absent parents. (For example, Nancy Drew was old enough to drive! Her mother was dead, and her father at work. She solved mysteries by herself.) Now, many Beginning books and Early Chapter books do not have parents in the story.
• Sadly, only a handful of books portray a pair of alive, married, beloved and emotionally supportive parents.

It is also important to avoid dysfunctional plot conflicts

• Ask yourself, “Why is this book thrilling?” Remember, we want to avoid dysfunctional plot conflicts.
• A story, to be a story, must describe movement through a conflict. Identify the book’s tension and where it’s getting its thrills. If the plot itself is thrilling, the author can “get away” with the characters being less rough.
• Thrilling plot lines, which usually work best for us, include: a quest, a mystery, a journey, or a ballgame.
• Unfortunately, the converse is often true. If the plot is thin, the characters are typically rough and troubled.

Conclusion

Seventy-five to 85 years ago, America experienced a surge of great children’s books. In those days, a publisher usually focused on reaping profits from adult books and left the juvenile department on its own. But lately, shifts in corporate structure have resulted in a focus on profits. Shifts in American culture have resulted in an increasingly mercenary and standard-less (offensive) approach to get to those profits. Today, everyone is vying for everyone else’s attention, and our eyeballs are actually a commodity.

Very few people today talk much about our freedom to not know things. How profound it is that we cover our eyes when we recite, Shema, as if to say, “My eyes are mine.” Children’s book publishers cynically refer to their market share as their “real estate.” Our children’s minds should not become their “real estate.”

Thoughtfully consider the dose of literacy and cultural literacy you deem acceptable, then use the “Avoid-Find-Check” system to locate good books. Some parents will choose to pre-read every single book before they give it to their children. Other parents may opt for the quick-check methods and online tools that can help. It is worth the time and effort and goes to the heart of parenting.

Nechama First is the longtime Elementary Librarian at Talmudical Academy of Baltimore. Originally from Los Angeles, she has always been an avid reader, and her professional experience includes book publicity, political outreach, and teaching. She was also the librarian at Neve Yerushalayim. She lives in Baltimore with her husband and children. Mrs. First may be reached at mrsfirstbooks@gmail.com. This article was originally published in expanded form in the journal Dialogue, vol. 8, Chanukah 2019