Dear Editor,
In the May issue of en your correspondent Neil McKenzie asks about suitable books for his grandchildren. In the 1980s I was asked to tackle this very question by the Librarians’ Christian Fellowship, as it was then called. My findings, still available online, are now very out-of-date but the general principles still apply.
The problem is that, although I hate to say it, some Christian authors of children’s books, particularly fiction, do tend to be rather stilted and, as his grandchildren say, sometimes soppy or boring. However there are some who are excellent. Patricia St. John comes to mind. But I suppose Neil McKenzie is already aware of her books. Treasures of the Snow and Star of Light are probably her two best. C.S.Lewis’s Narnia books are of course already classics of children’s literature, at one point (I think in the 1980s) topping the secular popularity polls for children’s books, Tolkien’s The Hobbit is full of Christian ideas and an intelligent 10-year-old would enjoy it.
