Uh, NO!!! She's getting ones suited to her. :-) Starship Troopers is one. That's why I just "happened" to have it sitting here. :-)
My brother didn't question me giving her Citizen of the Galaxy though he'd never read it. BUT, he would not allow me to give his kids Tolkien's books. He's never read them, only seen the movies but he thinks they are demonic. *sigh* I tried to 'splain!! I bought him Fellowship to let him read and see... but he's not a reader and after almost 2 yearas he hasn't finished it yet. ~shaking head~
Anyway, this young niece was complaining because she thought reading material assigned in school was dumb. She thought she might like to read if she found stories that interested her. Turns out, she does!
Hmmm, does your brother consider Catholics demonic too?
If not, then you might want to point out to him that Tolkien was a deeply faithful Catholic, and his faith comes out in several places in the trilogy. Quite a few articles came out about it in the weeks after Return of the King debuted.
Qwinn
Some christians think LOTR and tolkien is wrong because there are wizards in it.
What might reassure him is that Tolkien sees his wizards not as supermen that a child might become by casting spells, but as angels come to earth to help men...
HOwever, unlike Harry potter, where children are encouraged to "develop" their psychic powers, in LOTR, one very strong theme is that such powers are forbidden, and that if one uses such powers even to do good, one will become corrupted to evil in the end...
The whole point of Frodo is that he is humble enough not to seek power, and he is well aware of his weakness as a lowly hobbit so that he is not tempted as a man might be to use the ring to become powerful and rule over men...
And the great men and elves, such as Aragorn, recognize their temptation to the ring and refuse to accept it...(This was brought out nicely in the movies, even more than in the books, that even good men like Boromir could become corrupted by the desire of the ring to do good--and as a result fall into sin)...
I have a dear neighbor who thinks Tolkien is demonic too. Someone told her that, so it must be true. I tried to explain, but it went way over her. (I don't mean to sound like a blue stater, but you know what I mean.) Tolkien, you either get it or you don't.
Young relative must read:
The Star Beast
Red Planet
Tunnel in the Sky
Rocket Ship Galileo
Have Space Suit - Will Travel
The Rolling Stones
These were originally serialized in Boy's Life in the 50's (IIRC). All good books reflecting self/family-reliance and good civic values.
Star Trek's Trouble With Tribbles episode was a blatant rip-off of a sequence involving "flat cats" in The Rolling Stones, also IIRC.
My brother didn't question me giving her Citizen of the Galaxy though he'd never read it. BUT, he would not allow me to give his kids Tolkien's books. He's never read them, only seen the movies but he thinks they are demonic. *sigh* I tried to 'splain!! I bought him Fellowship to let him read and see... but he's not a reader and after almost 2 yearas he hasn't finished it yet. ~shaking head~
How very sad! Does he find Television "demonic" as a rule? If not, why not!!??
I wondered about taking my aunt (who has brain damage) to the Rings simply for their complexity and a bit of the violence. I guess we assume too often that just because she's five years old in some respects she's immature across the board. Not so ... she loved them!! Follows them more closely than I, even, given some of the questions she asked and detail she noticed. =)
Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were good friends, and their works are powerfully moral through and through. I've never seen a better description of the battle between good and evil than LOTR.
Good choice!
I gave a copy of Troopers to my son while he was in high school
He is now a Marine.
I liked the part were police jobs could only be held by combat vets because they knew what happened when the trigger gets pulled.