Merriam-Webster defines twaddle as as
1 a: silly idle talk : drivel
b: something insignificant or worthless : nonsense
Twaddle is also a term often used in the Charlotte Mason educational philosophy and she uses it to mean "dumbed down literature."
There is a LOT of twaddle out there!
Sometimes Twaddle is easy to spot. It is often found in the 'fad' chapter book series (Mary-Kate & Ashley books, Goosebumps, Captain Underpants, etc.)
But other times it is much harder to discern if what our children are reading is twaddle or not.
For instance, lately we have attempted to read a couple of books from popular historical fiction series for young readers.
The first one was a book from the "Dear America" series put out by Scholastic.
As a parent I thought, "Oh good - My child is reading about history - Pilgrims even!"
I was happy because it seemed like a much better choice than Captain Underpants.
Then, after Julie had read a few chapters, she brought it to me and said...
"I don't think I want to read any more of this book, Mom."
I said "Why not honey?" (expecting to hear... "It's too boring.")
But instead I heard, "It's really scary and the pilgrim girl is mean!"
She opened the book to show me and I was horrified what I read.
*Warning The content below is graphic - Please do not let young children read it!!!*
(Excerpt from Dear America - A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple)
"And..." He spoke slowly. " Just when they had a few breaths of life still in them, they were cut down. Their bellies were cut open, their guts drawn out and burning coals put in their bowels! That is what the bishops do. Mere killing is not enough."
Well, Mam who had been sitting still as a stone, suddenly jumped up with Blessing in her arms.
"Elder Brewster." She spoke through clenched teeth. "This is not a conversation for children nor for anyone sitting at the table of the Lord partaking in the nourishment that He hath provided. We do not want our children's sleep to be troubled with nightmares."
So...the 'mother' in the story had enough common sense to know that those thoughts/images would be terrifying to children...and yet the author (and the editors at Scholastic) did not?!!
After all...the children in the book are fictional, but the targeted audience of these books are real children...with real fears...and those careless words really will give them nightmares!
The main character of this story ( for supposedly being a godly Pilgrim girl) was selfish and mean. In one instance she spoke of another shipmate saying,
"I am praying very hard not to ever speak out loud the following thought, but I must say it or I shall explode. So I shall write it very very small: I hope Mary Chilton almost dies a long and painful death and then recovers but is left just slightly crippled.
 
I wish I could say that was our only experience with awful children's literature recently, but it was not. Once again we chose a series of 'historical fiction' (hmmmm...perhaps we should try another genre?  ) We Picked up the first few books from the Time Warp Trio from the library.
The first book, "Knights of the Kitchen Table," was actually pretty funny and we all enjoyed it a bit. There were a few 'off color' jokes about a giant with bad breath and gas... but nothing horrible.
The next book was about pirates, and this one was much 'darker.'
For instance; Blackbeard watches two pirates dig a hole and then he shoots them dead and throws them in the hole (so they can't tell anyone where his treasure is buried.)
The kids in the book were terrified that he would shoot them next, (and Julie was, too.)
We managed to finish the book, though, and all ended well, so Julie seemed alright.
We should have stopped.
In the next book (about cowboys/the Wild West) they talk about Indians scalping people and cutting them open and taking their guts out. 
We stopped right there!
(I didn't even read the 'guts' line, but I had already read the scalping part, and Julie was terrified.....She's very sensitive.) Julie was in tears and she had a hard time falling asleep that night. She doesn't even want to look at the cover of the book, and I promised never to read one of those books to her ever again!
I was also very disappointed about the language used in the Time Warp books! Aside from the main characters calling each other names like 'stupid' and 'dummy,' the one boy tells another "If we make it out alive I'm gonna' kill you."
There were much more offensive words, too, like "D_mnation and h_llfire!" (used as a curse by the pirates,) and in the cowboy book the trail boss says "What the H___!"
I know a lot of other parents are probably being 'duped' thinking, "These books are about history...they're educational."
But they're not....they're awful, and they are twaddle!
One last word about twaddle.....Twaddle can even come in the form of highly recommended books. (Some are even on the 'recommended reading lists' of some well known /well trusted companies -as my good friend Daisy recently found out. She has also written an excellent post on this subject here!)
And I completely agree with her that we, as parents, need to pre-read the books that we give our children. We need to guard their hearts and minds.
Daisy also quoted these verses, but I wanted to add them here as well, because I feel they are so important.
Philippians 4:8-9
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right,
whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—
if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice.
And the God of peace will be with you.
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Wednesday, June 18, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Sally