Hi. I'm Jenny Phillips with The Good and the Beautiful. You may have watched our video,
It's Time to Be Brave about Books, and have decided that it's important to you to immerse
your children in good and beautiful books. But how? This video is to help you in that journey.
In a world of instant gratification and fast-paced thrilling entertainment, it can be hard to get
your children interested in truly good books. But I am here to tell you that it is possible
and it is unbelievably worth it. First, I want to explain that The Good and the Beautiful puts books
into three categories: good and beautiful books, roller coaster books, and unworthy books. What
defines a good and beautiful book? This Bible verse is the underlying standard that we use,
Philippians 4:8: "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think
on these things." So good and beautiful books are true and honest, pure, lovely, good report,
virtuous, and praiseworthy. This means that good and beautiful books have high moral and literary
value, and they also need to be entertaining. But they do not contain graphic violence. They do not
contain inappropriate, crude, or profane content. They do not portray inappropriate behavior as
funny, acceptable, or entertaining. And they do portray family, adults, and learning as things
that should be positive and helpful. What are the benefits of good and beautiful books? A varied,
rich vocabulary, increased focus, concentration, and memory, longer attention span, stronger analytical
thinking skills, greater empathy for others, improved writing skills, reduced stress, increased
knowledge of history, people, places, cultures, more depth of character. Who doesn't want those things?
What defines a roller coaster book? In roller coaster books, there's nothing inappropriate, but
the focus is on high entertainment value and they have low literary and/or educational value. What
are the benefits of roller coaster books? All of these things that I talked about. A varied and rich
vocabulary, increased focus, and concentration, those you do not get from roller coaster books. Longer
attention span? No. Stronger analytical thinking skills? No. Greater empathy for others? No. Stronger
memory? No. Improved writing skills? No. Reduce stress? No. Increased knowledge of history, people, places,
and cultures? No. Do roller coaster books do harm? Well, let's think about character. If all of their
reading about is thrill, instant gratification, and self-centered fun, their character is going
to become more like that. Every roller coaster book that they read diminishes the desire to read good
and beautiful books. So what are unworthy books? Unworthy books may or may not have high literary
value, and educational value, and good messages, but they do contain inappropriate content or
language, or they make fun of family, learning, or high moral character. So I looked this morning
on the top 10 best-selling books for Middle Grades on Amazon.com, every single one of the top 10 books
can't be on our Good and Beautiful Book List. Why are unworthy books so popular? I think one reason
is that parents don't know what is in them, and parents want their children to love reading. As I
explained in my video, It's Time to Be Brave about Books, unworthy books can really impact children
negatively. So how do we get our children to love good and beautiful books? Let me give you some
ideas, but remember that every child is different, and parents should use their own judgment and
guidance from God. Good and beautiful books may be a little more challenging. That talent exercises
the mind, strengthens the heart, and leaves you with such powerful and meaningful views of history
and of people. To see real growth and the depth of character that we desire for our children, we have
to get away from the party with unlimited cakes, and sweets, and constant entertainment, and into
the pure fresh air of the mountains. Let's talk about how we do that. Number one is to get rid of
unworthy books. Parents and children shouldn't feel bad for having read unworthy books in the past.
This is a great opportunity to teach your children about improving, and moving forward, and growing.
Teach our children to judge books righteously. We need to judge books, but not to judge people for
reading certain books. Include your children in this journey. Have a discussion with them. If you
can sit down with them and say like, "Hey, I just saw this amazing video." Have them watch this video and
all of our videos on books with you. I strongly, strongly suggest getting them involved in this
journey, and sitting down with them, and making up a list of your standards. So what if your children do
not agree with getting rid of unworthy books and still want to read them? Should they be allowed
to still read unworthy books? Well parents will know best, but consider the fact that children need to
learn how to discern between worthy and unworthy literature, and they cannot do that if they're
desensitized. They need to be away from unworthy literature long enough that they'll be able to
feel the difference for themselves. Children become desensitized to violence, disrespect, negativity,
and other poor behavior. A long time, maybe one to three years, is needed without any unworthy books.
It's like detoxing, so that the children can then discern and feel for themselves when something is
wrong. Let me tell you about the experience that I had with my own daughter. It took her a couple of
years to really start enjoying good and beautiful books, and when I could tell that she truly could
appreciate them and had been away from those other books long enough, there was a book that
she wanted from this series that she used to read before this whole journey, and she wanted to
read it so I let her. She got about a chapter into it and then she brought it to me and gave it to me and
said, "Yeah, I don't want to read this." It takes time, but your children can come to know for themselves.
Do whatever you have to do to get your children immersed in good and beautiful books. Really good
and beautiful books are so fulfilling, and make you feel so good, that once children learn to discern
and get used to the slower pace at times, they will choose those books for themselves. Number two is
to supply children with as much good literature as you can. The Good and the Beautiful Book List
is a great place to start and offers hundreds and hundreds of books that are completely clean
and wholesome. You can find good and beautiful books on our website with our Good and Beautiful
Library. You can find used books that are from our list on abebooks.com, and you can even find
some of our books on our list on librivox.org, to listen to for free. You can request that your
local library purchase books from The Good and the Beautiful Book List. Create a book exchange
with other families. The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts curriculum helps teach children to
discern and to appreciate good literature. Levels 1-5 of our Language Arts courses
are totally free. Download the PDFs and print off pages about good literature, and just do this if
you can't do the whole course. Number three is to make good literature fun and appealing. Family read
aloud's, do reward charts, earn a family vacation through reading, find books about your children's
wholesome interests, do book displays in your home, read in nature, read books from different
cultures and then have a food night. Start a Good and Beautiful Book Club. One of the other things
that I do to get my kids reading a lot of good and beautiful books is I secretly, sneakily make
their bedtime earlier, a half an hour, 45 minutes earlier. And then I tell them that they can just
go to sleep or they can read good and beautiful books. And what do you think they choose? They read
books and get a lot of the reading in. Number four is to set an example. Read good and beautiful books
yourself. We all know that example is one of the most powerful teachers. Read the same books your
children are reading at the same times, and discuss what you are reading. Set an example for choosing
only wholesome books. Change yourself, and it will deeply affect your children. What if your spouse
is not on board? Use gentle persuasion and humble example, not angry self-righteous example. Sometimes
it takes time. Give them that space. Number five is to persist. Expect that adjusting to loving good
and beautiful style books, may take some children one to three years. And also remember that the more
roller coaster books or unworthy books that the child reads, the slower the progress will
be. For reluctant readers, don't start with books that are too challenging, and choose
the right books for transitioning. See our blog post titled, "Top Books for Children New to Good
and Beautiful Style Books." Another great thing is to use audio books. This is a wonderful way to get
used to more complex, slow paced literature. And also, wise rewards are helpful. I hope The Good
and the Beautiful can be a support to you in this journey to immerse your children in the best books.
In the world we live in, it is not always an easy journey. Subscribe to our Channel and watch our
upcoming videos on books, so you will continue to be encouraged, inspired, supported, and reminded
of why it's so important that we are careful and wise in the books that we give to our children.