on twins and fairy tales

My twin sisters, my young padawans, Tarrah andTess, are doing so well in their jeid (ok, bookworm) training that I have to brag on them for a minute. They are seven --almost eight years old, and promising readers. For this summer I established a contest for them, the first to read 1,000 pages would receive an item of their choice from dover press (see www.doverpublications.com ).They’ve taken on the challenge with vigor. It will be interesting to see who wins (and hopefully I won’t be on the unhappy-face list of the loser). Just as interesting is observing the reading habits and tastes of identical twins. Hint: they’re not identical. One has more initiative, and the other procrastinates, one seems to prefer fiction, and the other non-fiction. They have read a few of the same books, one was The Story of the Declaration of Independence. It looked simple enough, but I was proved wrong when the following dialogue occurred:
Me: Did you like the book, Tess?
Twin: Yeah, it wasn’t boring like I thought it would be.
Me: Can you tell me anything new you learned?
Twin: (Giggles and says “ummmm)
Me: What is the Declaration of Indepence?
Twin: (With puzzled look) I don’t know. They kept talking about that.
I tried to explain it to her a little, and I think she got the general idea, but since then I’ve been more selective in my choices and made sure they understand what they read, and not merely read it for speed.
Other than more difficult chapter books, I’ve tried to supply them with lots of fairy tales, even if that means 50 pages and only 50 sentences. Albert Einstein said something like “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” In talking with the twins I was surprised how few fairy stories they really knew (I must have driven Mother and my Grandparents insane when I was little, making them tell the stories over and over and over and...). This needed remedying, badly. So they have been reading Beauty and the Beast, Rapunzel, and such , with more on the way from the good ol’ library. Greek tales, Grimm Tales, Anderson, MacDonald, what wealth! Should anyone pay me a visit this summer, they will be likely to find me hidden away with a stack of them in a corner. I do have a terrible weakness for them, especially those with all the lovely illustrations.
Just this week I reread MacDonald’s Lilith, a MARVELOUS fairy story. One could read it a hundred times through and never understand all the allegory to be found. The “feel” one gets reading this book is absolutely beautiful, fantastic!!! I could go on forever in it’s praises. To be sure, I don’t agree with much of what is communicated (mainly that God will redeem all evil eventually), but there is so much to think about, it’s impossible for the brain to be inactive reading this book. The character of Mara held special interest for me this last read, particularly this passage:
. . . “you (speaking of Mara) are the voice that cried in the wilderness before ever the Baptist came! you are the shepherd whose wolves hunt the wandering sheep home ere the shadow rise and the night grow dark”
“My work will one day be over,” she said, “and then I shall be glad with the gladness of the great shepherd who sent me.”
Yes, God does indeed have control over evil, and does allow seemingly bad things to happen to us because He loves us so, and they work together for good to those that love Him and are the called according to His purpose.