What is the influence of good books on children?

Is it possible (or likely) for certain themes in books to profoundly influence a child's way of thinking?

• One interesting thing that I've noticed about some parents is that they will nix some books from their children's reading list because of certain themes. Usually, such themes include, but are not limited to: sexual content, magic, witchcraft, religion, et cetera. Which brings about the question. Do books have a profound, or significant, influence on a child's future outlook? Is it possible that a book could trump parents' teachings or values in the child?

• Answer:

  I agree that books can have a very potent effect on a child, especially the very young. The recent craze of The Hunger Games books is an interesting study in the subject of this question. You have a plot that is 100% driven on a state run battle where children murder each other. There are so many ideas in that sentence alone that censorship isn't even the start of the questions. What is also interesting is that the most adamant of these followers are children. My wife is an elementary teacher and told me about how right before the movie came out nearly all the fourth graders were reading the book and sales of the book support her observation. Now imagine you are a young person, a child, ignorant of real violence. Then you read a book where children very violently murder other children. The thought gives me the chills and I went further into the subject in an article I wrote on the subject. You can read it here if you like: http://jonsdeepthoughts.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/what-you-should-know-about-the-hunger-games/ Now I know that it sounds like I am insisting on a good old fashioned book burning, but I'm not. I do believe that books like this have very real important value to a culture. A book like this is important because it can be used to break kids open into concepts like evil and people forced into difficult situations. We need that to make even harder lessons, like the things that led to atrocities such as Auschwitz or the Butaan death march. If we can't make the realities of life available to children they won't believe it, they won't understand it, they won't learn about it and twenty years later they will do it again. All books aren't like this, but they all have value. They all convey lessons. They all expand the potential experiences that a person can know and understand. For that reason we can't withhold books. I very much agree that these things must be done in good time. I don't think that 9 year olds are enough to read Hunger Games, but I think that 13 is perfect to get them thinking about things. Other book like Harry Potter has also been the subject of numerous doctoral thesis on child development and lessons learned through them. If you don't think that children should be exposed to the material you shouldn't hold it back. Then it becomes contraband and cool... a cool book. But you should set the real age when your kids can read the material and get the depth of its lessons, which also means something else... You have to read the books you pass judgment on. They are made for kids and young adults. If it takes you that long to read it then you should be more worried about your own education rather than your kids casting spells.