Introductory Questions

Where do you think is the absolute best place to read? Under the covers with a flashlight? Snuggled with an adult who loves you, whose voice can transform into all the different characters in a book?

How about in a tree house, lying flat on your stomach, with your chin propped up in your hands?

Maybe you can read braille, and you have a favorite place to get your body comfortable and dance your fingers over the pages.

Story

When I was young, I liked to read in all sorts of places, some of which got me in trouble. You really should not hide in the bathroom with a book during school! But I never had a problem at my favorite place of all for reading: the library. There were square, wooden tables with sturdy oak chairs. The light was always a soft gold, just right for reading and daydreaming myself right into a scene. All around me were books! They lined the walls, were stacked in bins, and sometimes were wheeled around on big metal carts. For me, the library was heaven.

It turns out I was not the first one to think so! Unitarians 150 years ago felt the same way. They believed in reading, not only for adults, but for children, too—because of what we could learn, and because it was fun! There were Unitarian men like William Taylor Adams (pseudonym, Oliver Optic) who wrote adventure stories about going to sea and traveling the world; and there were Unitarian women like Jane Andrews who wrote family stories that showed girls as smart and funny and active. Some Unitarians peopled their books with native Americans and African Americans, as well as Europeans. Like Unitarian Universalists who live our faith today, Unitarians who wrote stories often helped us imagine a world of equality that looked very different from the world they were living in.

Not everyone thought children should have the freedom and opportunity to read library books. Some adults thought books with bad guys in them might make kids bad. Some Christians thought stories about people who weren’t Christians might give kids the wrong idea about religion.

Luckily, there were Unitarian women and men who felt differently. They trusted kids, believed in choices, and knew that the bigger the world we recognized and tried to know, the better for all of us. Thanks to them, we have libraries, and children’s rooms in them, and my idea of heaven.

About the Author

Reverend Andrea Greenwood spent a year investigating the history of American children’s books. She says, “Everything associated with books for children—adventure stories,rags to riches stories,realistic literature, series books for boys, girls books, picture books, children’s rooms in libraries, story hours, libraries in public schools, Newbery and Caldecott medals for children’s books— every single one of these was initiated and developed by Unitarians. At last, an explanation for why I feel at home with children’s books!”

Additional Activities

Download the Fall 2013 UUWorld Families Pages (pdf) for more activities.

Originally published in the “Families Weave a Tapestry of Faith” insert in The UUWorld.