This post is part of an occasional series called Finding God in Children's Literature, in
which I look at children's books in light of the Bible and Sacred
Tradition. All correlations between these books and the Christian faith
are my own insights, unless otherwise noted. You may quote me
or link to these posts, but please do not re-blog them or use these
ideas as though they were your own. Thank you.
Yertle the Turtle
by Dr. Seuss is the story of a proud and power-hungry reptile. He
starts out as king of a pond of turtles. Unsatisfied with that, he
commands his subjects to stand on one another's' shells in a stack,
while he climbs to the top. The stack of turtles keeps growing, despite
the protests of the turtle on the bottom, named Mack. Yertle believes he
is king of all he can see, so the higher his throne of turtles goes,
the more powerful he becomes. Eventually, he over steps and the stack of
turtles collapses. At last, Yertle is only King of the Mud.
Theodore
Geisel, who is better known to the world as Dr. Seuss, was a political
cartoonist before he began writing children's books. He later said he
meant Yertle the Turtle as a condemnation of Hitler. But there
is a much more ancient culture than Nazi Germany that had striking
similarities to Yertle's kingdom--Babylon.
Continue reading.
Hi Connie, what series is "Finding God in Children's Literature?" I would love to find additional books and resources for just this purpose. I teach first grade CCD and send home parent notes after each class. And when I can, I recommend book titles for my families to look for in our local library. Of course, they must teach virtues and morals. They don't necessarily have to be categorized as a Christian book but be faith forming. I would appreciate any insight you may have.
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