Books Without Agendas: Moms Lead the Way to Change

Everyone is entitled to clean reads. For ten years, Good News! Book Fair has helped parents find appropriate books for children of all ages.

Our Catholic faith highlights the heroic virtue of many women who have responded in a time of great need, rose to protect their families, and lead the way to defend their country. Women such as Saints Joan of Arc, Elizabeth Ann Seton, Frances Xavier Cabrini, Katherine Drexel, and Theodore Guerin are great examples. We are inspired by these saints and the countless women today contributing to positive changes in our society. 

Moms react to kids' media with inappropriate content

Over the past few years, mothers have seen the rise of inappropriate messaging in children’s merchandise, television programs, films, and books. Of all of these, books are the easiest way for interest groups to transmit their agenda-driven content without being detected.   

Today, mothers are denouncing this at school board meetings, have spoken out at their children’s schools and have spread the word of Good News! Book Fair, contributing to its growth since 2014. This year Good News! celebrates 10 years serving schools around the country. Its mission is to instill the joy of reading in children and provide them with wholesome curated titles, from multiple top secular and Christian/Catholic publishers. They also promote family friendly entertainment, collaborating with Family Theater Productions and Angel Studios.  

Mothers like Emily Ortega, who had kids in public school for awhile and couldn’t get behind the idea when she was told it didn’t matter what they read as long as they were reading, support this effort.  

It absolutely matters what my children read. Forming their minds is at least as important as forming their bodies, and I think most parents have strong opinions about what their growing children should be allowed to eat. I treat reading material in the same way. I love having a book fair where I know I can trust every title on the list. I can’t say that about the public library or even the school library. (Emily Ortega)

Emily, a mother of eight, found Good News! Book Fair for her children’s school, and she also started writing her own series of children's chapter books.  

Anita Rader was a volunteer Catholic school librarian in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and she was in charge of running a secular book fair twice a year.  

“At first I didn’t notice the problem, but as time progressed there were more and more books that I questioned,” Anita said. A student returned an inappropriate book that she felt uncomfortable reading. The last straw for Anita was when she found a picture book about a knight who saves a prince and then they fall in love, marketed toward preschool-age children.   

I don’t have time to pre-read everything for my children to make sure it’s quality and pure material. For these reasons, I love that Good News! Book Fair reads and critiques everything before to find it acceptable and appropriate for children’s growing minds. I loved this idea so much that I became a curator for Good News! myself. (Anita Rader)

Volunteers carefully curate each book

Good News! has a group of volunteer curators who read every book to make sure they are age appropriate and align with our faith and values. Good News! is always creating engaging opportunities such as author book signings and presentations to make reading fun and entertaining and not just seen as a homework by students.  

Everyone is entitled to clean reads. This is why Good News! is now a program of Literacy Advocates USA, a nonprofit. They are growing to meet the demand, including serving those in under-served and low-income areas, providing fund-raising for their libraries, and programs to increase children’s literacy skills. Good News! Book Fair is headquartered in Florida with a second distribution center in Ohio.  

There is still much work yet to accomplish. If you are a mom who would like to donate time, talent, or treasure please reach out at GoodNewsBookFair.com. The vision is to change the media, thus change the culture to what is true, good, and beautiful. If you think this is too lofty of a plan, remember, trust in God is sufficient. As Saint Joan of Arc is known to have said with great faith: “I’m not afraid. I was born to do this!”

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Copyright 2024 Liz Lantigua for Good News Book Fair
Images: courtesy of Good News Book Fair, all rights reserved.