Summer Reading is for Everyone

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AliceinWonderland

“Then shall we carelessly allow the children to hear any old stories…?”
Plato, Republic

Summer is a time for stories. There is a great tradition of taking stories seriously, even, and sometimes especially, ‘non-serious’ or leisure reading. Stories are food for the soul, for young and old alike. They should nourish.

Age-appropriate reading can be part of the summer plan for every member of the family. Yet there is something magical and irreplaceable about reading together as a whole family. How many of us have indelible memories of stories read-aloud as a family? It can, however, be challenging to find a story that will hold everyone’s attention. A piece published yesterday by my friend William Fahey reminds us of one such classic for the whole family, as well as a couple of good reads for mature readers.

As we, and especially our children, can find ourselves drawn in by the ease and glitz of video entertainment, we will need to exercise discipline and make an intentional effort here. I hereby resolve to read-aloud (again) this summer the book Fahey recommends, to anyone in the house who will listen.

Images: George Dunlop Leslie’s Alice in Wonderland; and N.C. Wyeth’s illustration of Treasure Island.

Orginally posted at Bacon from Acorns

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John A. Cuddeback is a professor and chairman of the Philosophy Department at Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia, where he has taught since 1995. He received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from The Catholic University of America under the direction of F. Russell Hittinger. He has lectured on various topics including virtue, culture, natural law, friendship, and household. His book Friendship: The Art of Happiness was republished in 2010 as True Friendship: Where Virtue Becomes Happiness. His writings have appeared in Nova et Vetera, The Thomist, and The Review of Metaphysics, as well as in several volumes published by the American Maritain Association. Though raised in what he calls an ‘archetypical suburb,’ Columbia, Maryland, he and his wife Sofia consider themselves blessed to be raising their six children in the shadow of the Blue Ridge on the banks of the Shenandoah. At the material center of their homesteading projects are heritage breed pigs, which like the pigs of Eumaeus are fattened on acorns, yielding a bacon that too few people ever enjoy. His website dedicated to the philosophy of family and household is baconfromacorns.com.

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