Now I’m going to preface this post with, I could very well
be wrong. And if I am, please,
please give me examples in the comments, because I’m genuinely interested in
this topic and it relates tangentially to my research.
So, why is it that religion is practically invisible in
children’s and YA literature? You
have to look far and between to find any mention not only of God or a church,
but especially of a character holding any religious beliefs or partaking in any
religious practices. Over the past
year or so, the only religious details I’ve gotten from any children’s or YA
books, that I can recall, have been Laura Amy Schlitz’s Splendors and Glooms and Ruta Sepetys’ Out of the Easy.
Now
both of these are set in the past, and it is a fact that people in general were
more religious in the past. But
I’ve read many a historical fiction book where the author failed to add the
historical detail to have their characters exhibit any religiosity. So I commend both Sepetys and Schlitz
on staying true to the historicity of their pieces and not taking out the
religious details for the sake of safeness or political correctness!
However, have you read any books recently, picture books,
children’s novels, or YA stories, especially in a contemporary setting in which
religion plays either a prominent role or at least is a part of a character’s
lifestyle or worldview in any way?
And I’m specifically referring to mainstream publishers, obviously there
are many Christian publishers for example that are heavy with these themes, but
I’m curious about major publishing houses.
You could tell me, well why don’t you just read Christian
fiction? I could, but I’m curious why religion evades so much of mainstream
children’s/YA fiction. We live in
a time when we are asking our children to relate to others, to read about
characters who live very different lives from us, and also about characters who
may resemble us or people we know but we ask readers to look at them with new
eyes. I don’t have to go to a
specialty bookstore or specially labeled off shelf in a bookstore in order to
read children’s and YA books on Asian Americans or African Americans or LGBT
characters or Latinos. We are
asking our children to embrace diversity, to read about characters from all of
these backgrounds, lifestyles etc, but why is it that we aren’t asking them to
read about characters who have religion as a major part of their life?
In part I think so many are afraid that, well if we have
them read about a character who has religion at the center of their life, or
who participates at some level in religious practices, we’ll be imposing views. Why is this? We don’t call it an
imposition when children are asked to or choose to read about a character from
various backgrounds and lifestyle choices?
Religion is still a major part of many, many children’s
lives, but you wouldn’t know it if you took a look at children’s books coming
out today. I’m not asking for
books where religion is the sole theme of the story, although that would be
interesting, but at least some characters that have religious mindsets and that
acknowledge that, yes in fact, religion is part of culture, and part of the
lives of children and young adult readers.
Again, if I'm wrong about this, please leave me any examples or comments or thoughts below! I'm genuinely very curious :)
