Vibe shift

Back in the day when I reviewed books weekly for my newspaper, I read and reviewed a great many children's books. They were easy to read and write about, and I liked them because they gave me a chance to catch up on my other reading. Plus, I enjoyed passing the books on to my son when he was young and years later to my grandchildren.

In recent years I have read few children's books, except for such classics as Winnie-the-Pooh and Pinocchio. So I have little knowledge about the gender ideology and identify politics that have apparently infested the children's book industry, along with much else in our society.

I was interested in a recent column by Meghan Cox Gurdon, who writes regularly about children's books for The Wall Street Journal. She sees signs of a "vibe shift," although it may take a few years before this shift becomes apparent, she says. That's because it can take years for books to be started, finished, illustrated, edited and published. Thus, many of those books still in the pipeline are of the woke variety.

But Gurdon sees signs for hope and a return to sanity. Because of the pandemic, parents became more aware of what their children were reading and what they were being taught in school. The new administration in Washington and the votes that brought that administration to power are another indicator of change. 

"For years, children's publishers faced little resistance as they promulgated titles that earlier generations would have had no trouble seeing as inappropriate for the young," she writes. "The industry went too far, and now it's facing resistance."

So there is hope for the future. In the meantime, parents should continue to keep a close eye on what their children are reading.