Book Reviews coming: Beta Test

Ever since Ellie was born - and before even - I have been spending a fair amount of time thinking about and reading children's and young adult literature. The Harry Potter debates really got me thinking, and I determined that I couldn't really decide whether to have my kids read that or other books without checking them out myself. I had so much fun reading, and later was so shocked at the downright evil things I found in other kids' books, that I decided to start this project of reviewing books for parents who want more info on the things going into their kids' brains and who don't have the time to read everything themselves. This will also be good notes for me so I can read up now before Ellie is reading them faster than I can keep up!

So the plan is to start including reviews of books I'm reading and have recently read on this site. If I eventually amass enough and/or find other people who want to contribute, I'm thinking of starting a separate site for them. For now I'm planning on giving a quick summary a la Decent Films, a website I really love for movie reviews. Steven Graydanus gives each film a ranking on age appropriateness, artistic/entertainment value, moral/spiritual value, and an overall rating. This helps separate out the great works of depraved literature from the insipid but well-intentioned stuff and everything in between. I'll try to go into a bit more detail than the executive summary, but I'm going to err on the side of including a book with a limited discussion rather than waiting to write an essay and not having anything posted for months. As my mother would say, the perfect is the enemy of the possible.

Here's a quick list of things I've read recently that I hope to put up - to whet your appetite and give me something to shoot for:

• Harry Potter (liked it, but will need a nuanced discussion because of the controversy)
• Philip Pullman's Dark Materials series (very disturbing and explicitly anti-Christian)
• A Series of Unfortunate Events (fun but not terribly uplifting - surprise)
• Uncle Tom's Cabin (not really for kids, but made a huge impression on me)
• Winnie the Pooh books
• Stuart Little
• The Penderwicks
• The Ender Wiggin books (liked the first ones best, interesting moral and religious issues that require discussion, though)
• Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Anderson (some are surprisingly gruesome!)

Any advice on ways to improve the system or volunteers to review your own favorite kids' literature welcome!