Kids' Books and Our Reaction

Elena over at My Domestic Church commented about the book The Midwife's Apprentice and about how thought she enjoyed it, as did her sons, some Catholic groups are highly opposed to it. This brought to mind a book my son had to read this summer A Secret History by Procopius, a famous historian from the time of the emperor, Justinian. Evidently Procopius wrote a multi-volume history of his time focusing on the glories of Justinian. A Secret History tells, as Paul Harvey would say "the rest of the story". Basically it describes Justinian, famous for his Code, as a man who changed the laws whenever it suited him. It describes his wife as a harlot and indicates that both of them engaged in homosexual acts mentions other "unnatural" acts as well.

My son is on the immature and sexually innocent side. He has decided that he isn't getting married because he doesn't want to have to kiss on the lips. I was reading the book a chapter ahead of him, to make sure he understood what he was reading and of course he didn't understand the sexual references. As I was explaining them, one part of me was wondering why in the world a Catholic school would be assigning such stuff to the kids. I was seriously considering calling and complaining. As a I formulating my objection--I've found you get further with most people with calm, reasoned questions and/or objections than what you do with hysterical "how can you do that to my kid" remarks--I realized that in no way were those acts glorified in this book, but rather they were further proof of the evil of these people. I also realized that most kids his age would know what they were talking about, and that for us, it let me be the one to tell him that some people did that stuff, and that it was as wrong as what it sounded. I decided not to call the school.