In this month’s Classic Kirk essay, “Humane Literature for Young People,” Russell recommends a wide range of imaginative children’s books. He specifically chose stories of enduring substance because he believed that the quality of our youthful readings has a formative influence in our lives:

Real literature is something much better than a harmless instrument for getting through the idle hours. The purpose of great literature is to help us to develop into full human beings.

Parents often asked Russell to suggest good books that might help build a child’s character as well as proficiency in the art of reading. Drawing upon the delightful books he read as a boy and the books he read aloud or gave to our daughters, he offers a rich and lively variety of works, including fables, novels, fantasy, and historical fiction. He writes from a father’s perspective as much as from that of a man of letters.

This body of literature, he argues, is not just for the young. He knew from experience that books of the highest order are as moving to an adult as to a child:
 

‘The Snow Queen’ and ‘The Little Fir Tree’ make us smile and weep (at least internally) as promptly when we are sixty as we did when we were six years old. Andersen, a child all his unhappy life, still was profoundly wise. So read Andersen’s fairy tales, works of genius, to your children when they are very small indeed; then give them a handsome illustrated edition when they can read well for themselves; and let Andersen impart his bitter-sweet knowledge of the splendor and the tragedy of the human condition; and those young folk will make fewer blunders in their own lives, having read Andersen and perceived much truth as in a glass, darkly.

I hope this essay reminds you of a treasured book from your youth or that you discover an exciting new favorite to share with your family.

Best wishes for a peaceful and blessed Christmastide,
 
Annette Kirk, President
The Russell Kirk Center