On A Mission

Steve and I are discouraged by all the garbage in "teen media."  Alexa, the poor thing, has some very "strict" parents according to her friends.  Within the past couple of months, we have been on a roller coaster ride with TV, movies, music and books.  I'm sooooo annoyed by what choices our kids have these days. 

I honestly feel bad for the girl (my daughter).  Recently, we had a discussion about books.  She gets these recommendations from her friends about "great reads."  Alexa gets very excited...until mom steps in and checks reviews of the books.  Bless her heart, she is real good about listening to my concerns about certain books.  For example, she came home with this book...

She was pretty excited about having a new book to read that "everybody" was talking about.  Of course I ask her if it would meet my standards, and she of course says, "Yes, it's fine."  So I let it go for a couple of days until my curiosity takes over and I read the back cover of the book.  I'll make it short.  It's about two teens who die and are not in heaven or hell but somewhere in between.  In the book they "haunt" living people.  ARE YOU SERIOUS??  So when Alexa comes home from a friends house, I gently bring up a review that I read and how I was very concerned about this book.  She said, "I know.  Once I started reading it, I knew it wasn't something I wanted to read."  So yippee for her.  But I wanted her to understand why I continue to frown on paranormal, afterlife, etc., etc.  I shared this verse with her.

When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. ¹⁰ Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, ¹¹ or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. ¹² Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD; because of these same detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. ¹³ You must be blameless before the LORD your God.  Deuteronomy 18:9-13

I should say that Alexa is NOT into these sort of books.  She was never interested in Harry Potter or the Twilight series.  To be honest with you, she is the biggest scaredy cat!  She makes us change the channel if there is something disturbing on or puts her fingers in her ears and shouts "lalalalala" to drown out a creepy movie preview on TV!  So thankfully she is not into this scene.  But she is trying so desperately to find books that keep her attention for more than fifteen minutes.  And of course if her friends say it's good, well it must be.  She also said that there was nothing at the school library that was decent to read, just more like the book above.  I told her I would do some research and this is what I found, click here ( I think page two might have been worse).

So yes, I'm discouraged (Alexa is too) and now on a mission to find books that are worth reading and not liable to freak you out at night!  I'm a reader.  I love books.  I took a Children's Literature course and learned of many great books.  But right now, I'm at a loss.  She likes fantasy, but is ready to break away from Narnia.  Have I mentioned how sad I am that she is growing so fast?  Ugh!  I'm just frustrated.  Music stinks, movies stink, TV stinks and books, well they stink too.  I need some suggestions.  Where do I go for attention grabbing books with a positive message? 

I'm gonna search and will share what I find.  Please leave me any suggestions.  If not a specific book, then perhaps a website. 

Godspeed!