We have a what are you reading sticky in the !parenting@hexbear.net comm. I haven’t created a new one recently and wasn’t sure if doing it more regularly would be helpful for folks. Some good suggestions in there.
Clack, clack, moo is a book I like about cows who get a typewriter and go on strike.
What age range are you looking for?
How child are we talking? The Earthsea series is fantastic for children at the age that they’re interested in reading fantasy novels for example, but ‘child’ is a pretty wide category
No pictures, but kid friendly: Terry Pratchett. His discworld is great, and it was fine for me to read as a 12-year old. He has some weird anti-activist brain worms, but they only really show up around Nights Watch, and honestly I’d start my kid out with Diggers! I think you could read that to your child from like age 7 or so.
I’d also recommend the hobbit. It’s not leftist, but it’s not lib either, it’s a good kids book and it’s anti-war. The climax is Bilbo stopping the battle of the five armies.
Antoine saint-exuperys “The Little Prince” is also a must. No overt politics, but anti-war, anti-this-world-we-live-in and very heavy on compassion. If you haven’t read it either then get on it.
When I worked with kids we’d have story time and I’d tell them about leftist heroes. I reshaped Ned Kelly to be a sort of Robin Hood type. If you can find a good Robin Hood book, then I’d recommend that too. There’s lots of retellings.
My parents didn’t try to make us radicals, but me and my bros all read LOTR and the Hobbit at a young age, it doesn’t hurt the socialist development for sure. I’d say any books that describe how the US lies to maintain it’s murderous military dominance. Raising a kid with ideals like love and kindness, sharing, respect for different types of people and cultures, then showing them plainly how awful the US is, is probably a good way to put them on the right path.
One of my key points of turning away from the patriotic ideal boy was reading a Scholastic book about US wars. Revolutionary War, WW2 made sense, but they got to the section on Vietnam and basically said “we lied to get into the war, and then massacred villagers for a few years because we hate commies. We also shot American college students because they got mad at us. God Bless America!”
Also don’t watch Disney. I credit my parents refusal of Disney material to help me develop properly as well.
Don’t watch Disney
Except for Robin Hood.
Otherwise yeah, i think I agree. Kids shouldn’t be started off with political theory or overt political fiction. they should start off with compassion, love, beauty and adventure. I credit large amounts of my radicalisation to two concepts I learned at a young age: Compassion is a core part of being human, we need to be kind to each other and the world is a beautiful place, we need to preserve it.
It’s basically Kringsat Av Fjender, an old norwegian song
If you want your child to be happy let them be a lib if that’s how it ends up
The libs seem miserable though. They keep winning, but they hate it
Maybe 30 years ago, I don’t know how well liberalism is going to survive the next 30 years
I was staunchly against ignorance is bliss since a long time but I don’t know lately it’s kinda hard to not feel dejected and hopeless. And maybe it might just be better/happier to lead a life without all this burden. Or maybe it’s just me who’s making it a burden, don’t really know
The Little Prince.
Seconding this
I only recommended it because I think that’s where his username comes from.
But I know my mom read it to me as a kid but I don’t remember it at all, now that you are seconding it though I am actually interested in revisiting it so thanks!
You realy should read it again! It’s a very nice calm sweet read with some moving stuff. The thing about befriending a fox makes me cry whenever I read it
Das Kapital
but actually I feel like China Meville has a strong Marxist track record and also wrote some cool YA fiction
The complete Calvin and Hobbes boxed set. It’s a really funny classic comic strip that will make a reasonably literate kid laugh. And the artist snuck in a lot of subtle leftist thought-seeds throughout.
click clack moo
Masquerade as an insufferable lib until they turn 30. Dig a secret cold-war era bunker full of cool communist stuff in the basement for them to “discover” and keep as a secret from you.
blood meridian
Gramsci is out
you take that back /s
Communism for Kids by Bini Adamczak
