Hubby and I have a new great-niece, who just turned one year old.  For her birthday, I went to the book store to find a nice picture book (we will not be giving her any toys, just books for birthdays and Chanukah). What I found was not very nice, in my opinion.  It seemed to me that most, if not all, recently-written kids’ books are written with some kind of political theme in mind.  We have known for many years that the “educational” establishment has been indoctrinating our young people with the standard Progressive world view, including diversity, inclusion, homosexuality, environmentalism, feminism, and “gender-fluidity”, among many other disgusting themes.  Don’t we remember the furor surrounding the book Heather has Two Mommies, that was featured in some elementary schools a while ago?

I found it interesting that, for the last weekend in December, the Seattle Times and Wall Street Journal both did features on new “literature” for today’s “woke” kids.  The title of the Seattle Times story was “12 groundbreaking books for young readers of all genders“. (emphasis mine).  The point of view is right there in the title, you don’t even have to read any further.  Some of the titles are My First Book of Feminism (for Boys); From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea (written by a “trans-gender woman”); Mae Among the Stars, written about a black woman who went into space, “to push back against sexism and racism”; Stories for Boys who Dare to be Different: True Tales of Amazing Boys who Changed the World Without Killing Dragons, written to push back against “toxic masculinity”; and “The Best Man”, urging boys NOT to become “masculine”.  Hey, parents, this is what your kids are being urged to read!  Your boys are being taught that to be a boy, who does boy stuff, is a bad thing! Your girls are being taught that if they do not end up as scientists or astronauts, it’s because of Sexism.

In the Wall Street Journal, their children’s book editor Meghan Cox Gurdon says, in her piece entitled “You’re Never Too Young to Take a Stand”:

“When posterity looks back at the children’s books of 2018, it will notice a strong political current that, as in a river, progresses in one direction.  Posterity will observe, for instance, that the presidential election of two years before continued to have a downstream effect in the form of numerous picture books that celebrate certain ways of seeing the world and offer a rebuke to others.”

She cites picture books that have themes of acceptance of immigrants, tearing down all barriers, and acceptance of same-sex marriage.  Yes, little kids are learning about homosexuality and same-sex marriage!  She mentions a young-adult book about a dystopia that includes bad US government interning Muslim citizens, and the good American teen who helps a fugitive escape from a prejudiced land to Canada.  And she mentions  all the books of 2018 that featured the female Supreme Court Justices, and no mention of the males.  Girls Good; Boys Bad is the refrain.  And her final mention is a book entitled Woke Baby.

So, instead of looking for new books for my little niece, I will be buying her the well-loved books of the past, including Babar the Elephant, and Madeleine.  Parents, be very careful out there when choosing literature for your kids.  Read everything first, and make sure that what they are reading isn’t as subversive as all these books seem to be.