Questionable Library Books? How to Respond Biblically

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Today's podcast question says, "My 8-year-old has checked out a few books from his Christian school library. I am concerned because one book seems overall dark with themes of spirits and magic. The other book jokes about seances and mediums. I'm unsure if this is just a teachable moment with my son or if I should talk with the school about the removal of these books."

This is an interesting question, thinking about the books that our children bring home from the library, particularly if they're at a Christian school and they're bringing home books that we're not sure about.

Identifying Why We're Uncomfortable

As we're thinking about books that our children bring home from the library—any library, whether it's the public library, the public school library, or Christian school library—and we find that these books are ones we are not comfortable with, the question is: what should we do?

I think the first thing we need to do is identify why we are uncomfortable with this particular book. We need to ask ourselves: Is the content of this book contradicting the ways of God? Or is there just something about this book that we do not prefer? Because there are going to be many books that contradict the ways of God, and then there are going to be other books that don't necessarily contradict the things of God, but they just kind of rub us the wrong way.

When It's Just a Preference Issue

For example, for myself, there's a series of books called The Bad Kitty Books that I cannot stand. I just think that they're very mindless. I think the cat has a bad attitude. They just drive me bonkers. In fact, at a church that I attended in the past, in the nursery when I was a volunteer, there was actually a Bad Kitty book and the kids would always want to read it, and it just drove me nuts. So what I did is I went out and I bought a bunch of books that I thought would be a good replacement for it, and I put those books in the nursery library and removed the Bad Kitty book because I was like, "I just don't want the kids reading this." Now, in hindsight, should I have talked with the person who was over the nursery? Yes, I probably should have done that rather than just making that executive decision myself.

But that's just an example of there wasn't anything inherently wrong with the Bad Kitty books, but they were just something that I didn't want the children in my care exposed to because I thought they were mindless and I thought they were disrespectful. However, like I said, in hindsight, I should have talked to somebody about it, and those books weren't inherently wrong.

So that's the first question we need to ask ourselves: Is the content that's in this book contradicting the ways of God? Or is it just something that I personally do not prefer?

Now, if it's just something that you personally do not prefer, you as the parent still have the authority to make the executive decision of what happens in your house. You can say, "In our house, I don't want these books," so you can still make that decision. I just recommend talking with your child about why you don't want those books in your house. A good way to start off is by asking them why they like that book or why they like that series or why they want to read it, and then explaining to them why you would prefer that they not read those books and why you don't want them to bring them home from the library.

When Content Contradicts Scripture

Now, there may actually be things in the book that are not biblical that actually contradict the ways of God. And it sounds like from the person who wrote in this question that the books that his or her son brought home actually did have things in them that contradicted the ways of God. If there are seances and mediums in them, those are things that contradict the ways of God.

So what I recommend you do is if a book comes home with these things and you're like, "Okay, this contradicts the ways of God," first, just pick it up and look at it. Obviously, there's a certain level at which you might not want your kids exposed to that content at all. If it's just pushing witchcraft on them or if it's pushing things that are vile on them, use your own wisdom and discernment. And if it's pushing things like that on them to a degree that would be unhealthy for them to engage with at all, just say, "No, we're not going to read this book," and put it aside.

However, if the book isn't mainly focused on those things that are contradicting Scripture, but you're still not happy with how those themes are woven throughout, I recommend that you read the book with your child and ask them good questions. Because we don't want to just simply remove from our children all content that contradicts the Christian worldview. If we do that, what we're doing is we're just sanitizing everything for them, and we're not actually preparing them to live biblically faithful lives in a secular culture. So we can't just protect them and isolate them from everything. We have to give them proper exposure to the ideas of the world so that we teach them how to wisely think through them.

Practical Examples: Reading with Your Child

Okay, so again, if the book is not all containing this content that is contradicting the Scriptures, I recommend reading through the book with your child and asking good questions. What I'm going to do now is give examples from the two types of books that were mentioned. The first one was a book that was overall very dark. And then the second one was a book that talks about seances and mediums and is joking about them.

Example 1: A Dark Book

Read the book that's very dark, that has a dark theme with the child, and then say, "Hmm, this book was very dark. It focused on what is scary and what is evil. What did you think about that?"

Ask our kids a question. We don't ever want to jump into giving them a lecture because then we're not teaching them how to think critically and biblically. We're just giving them our thoughts on it. So we want to hear their thoughts. Ask, "What did you think about how dark this book was?" Hear their thoughts and say, "You know what? I really appreciate what you shared." Affirm one or two things that were true in what they said, and then say, "Let's see what God's word has to say about this."

So if this were me and I was reading through this book with a child, I would take them to Philippians chapter 4, verse 8, which reads: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

And then talk through what kind of things does this verse say that we're supposed to focus on. Talk through what each of those things are and then say, "Okay, so did this book help us focus on those things? This book that we just read, did it help us focus on what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, praiseworthy?" No, it didn't really do that. "So do you think that this is the kind of book that we should read on a regular basis?" No, this isn't helping guide our thinking in the ways that God has commanded us to have our thoughts be guided. And then talk further about how this passage should guide your family's book choices and other media choices.

Example 2: Joking About Seances

With the second example that was given of a book where characters are joking about having a seance or engaging with mediums, read through the book with your child and say, "Hmm, that character in this chapter was joking about having a seance. Do you know what a seance is?"

Ask your child that question. Learn what they think it is or what they know about it or what they don't know or what they think they know but they don't know. And then talk about how seances are designed to help people who are living contact people who have already died. Then ask them what their thoughts are on that and say, "You know what? Let's see what God's word has to say about this."

And again, we always want to anchor it to Scripture so that our kids are saying, "Okay, this isn't just mom or dad's opinion." The example that I gave with the Bad Kitty books before—that was my opinion, okay? It's not anchored in the word of God; it's just anchored in my preferences. But we want them to know that for these things, it's not just our opinion, but it's anchored in Scripture.

So two passages of Scripture that I think we could take kids to for this particular issue:

The first one is Leviticus chapter 19, verse 31, which says: "Do not turn to mediums or necromancers. Do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them. I am the Lord your God."

Say, "Okay, God was telling his people, the nation of Israel, that they weren't to seek out mediums or necromancers. Those were people who communicated with the dead. When they did that, they were making themselves unclean. They were sinning against God. They were supposed to trust in the Lord and follow what he says, not communicate with the dead."

Then another passage of Scripture is Galatians chapter 5, verses 19 through 23, which reads: "Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

Okay, and then talk about how in this list of sins that disqualify someone from the kingdom of God is sorcery. And this is one thing that the Apostle Paul in this passage is saying that we are not to partake in—that this is a sin against God. And so discuss how this book that you just read is joking about these types of things, but these aren't things to be joked about. They're serious because they are sins against God.

Share Your Experience

So I hope from these two examples, you can see how we can read through a book with our child, ask them what their thoughts are, and then take them directly to Scripture.

Now, if you are watching this podcast on YouTube and you've done something similar with your children, if you've read a book together and then talked with them about an element of the book that contradicted Scripture and took them directly to Scripture, would you just share briefly in the comments what book you read and the kind of conversation that you had? I think it can be great to hear even further examples of Christian adults and how they walked kids through this process.

Important Reminders

Now, as we think about helping our children think biblically about books that they've brought home from the library, I think it's really important that we make sure our children know that we are not upset with them for choosing this book or bringing it home. We don't want to criticize them or say, "I can't believe you brought this book home. How could you think of something like that?" Let them know we're not upset with them, but we're grateful that they took the time to talk through it with us.

And so I would recommend that you affirm that you want your child to continue thinking critically every time they read through a book. If you are interested in training your children to think critically through every book they read, every TV show they watch, this is something we need to train them to do over and over and over and over again. Because we are not going to be there reading the majority of books with them. Before your children can read, yes, you're going to be reading almost every book with them. But once they can read on their own, the majority of books that they read are going to be ones that they're reading independently.

Talking with the School

Now, just as one final closing thought for the parent who wrote in this question: if these books that you're concerned about are coming from a Christian school library, I would recommend that you bring up your concern to whoever is responsible over that library. If there's a librarian, I recommend that you talk to him or her. If there's no librarian—it's just a teacher over it or a principal over it—highly recommend you go to talk to him or her.

Now, as with any time we're bringing up a concern, it's really important that we have first established a positive relationship with the person. So even if you're attending a Christian school and you've never had an issue with any of the books that have come back, just make sure you write the librarian or whoever's over the library just a thank you note for all he or she does. Because it's really hard to manage a library because you're constantly needing to add new content and to maintain your current content, and it's hard to stay on top of all that is coming out. And then you can even think about volunteering to help out in the library, and then humbly bring your concerns to the librarian or whoever is over the library.

Because I know for myself as a classroom teacher, I tried to be really discerning about the books that I had in my classroom library, but sometimes I would just skim through a book when I bought it and didn't read the whole thing. And then later over the summer, I might read through a book and think, "Oh my goodness, I can't believe I had this in my classroom library." So I know how easy it is to have books in your classroom library or your school library and not be aware of all of the content that is in them.

I also know from myself as a teacher that there were a couple times—I'm thinking of one particular instance where I was doing a read aloud with kids in my class, and we would always do a read aloud during snack time in the morning. And there was this one book that I just loved reading aloud to my class, and my students actually loved it as well. However, there was a girl in my class that I didn't realize—some of the narratives in this story were causing her to feel anxious and to feel scared.

And the mom was so kind in the way that she approached me. She set up a meeting with me. She came in, she thanked me for all of the ways that I was loving her daughter and teaching her intentionally. And she was like, "I just have to let you know that she's really bothered by the book that you're reading, and I've never read it, but these are just my concerns." And the way that she brought it up was just so kind and so humble.

And did I want to stop doing that read aloud? No, I didn't want to stop doing it. However, the concerns that she had were legitimate. So I decided to do another read aloud, to stop that read aloud, to allow my students to check out that book out of our classroom library if they wanted to finish it, but to pick up another read aloud because of her concern. So that would just be my recommendation for anyone who's having these concerns about books that are coming from a Christian school library.

Conclusion and Call to Action

Well, that's a wrap for this episode. If you're serious about equipping your children to think biblically about the books they read and the media they consume, I want to invite you to two resources:

First, join our monthly book club at Foundation Worldview. Every month we send out an email with two carefully selected book titles—one for children ages 4-7 and another for children ages 8-12—along with 3-4 corresponding worldview questions you can discuss with your child as they read. This simple practice will transform how your children engage with books. Sign up at FoundationWorldview.com to receive these free monthly recommendations and never miss out on building your child's biblical thinking skills.

Second, if you have children between the ages of 8 and roughly 11, I highly, highly, highly recommend you check out our Comparative Worldview Curriculum. This curriculum lays the foundation for helping the kids in your care learn to carefully evaluate the different ideas that they're presented with in books, media, and everyday life. It's the same biblical thinking framework I've been sharing today, but systematically taught over an entire curriculum.

If you have a question that you would like for me to answer on a future Foundation Worldview podcast, you can submit that question by going to FoundationWorldview.com/podcast. And thank you for all of you who have submitted questions, because we literally could not do this podcast without you—we need your questions. So thank you for submitting those.

As we leave our time together, my prayer for you is that no matter the situation in which you and the children God has placed in your care find yourselves, that you would trust that God is working all things together for your good by using all things to conform you more into the image of His Son. I'll see you next time.