Reddit mentions of Lucia and the Light

Books don't teach virtues, parents do.

For example, my 3.5yo daughter has hit the princess stage really hard, and so she's obsessed with Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty and all that Disney nonsense.

So the other night, we were lying in bed and she asked me, "Dad, why is the witch (in Rapunzel) greedy?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"She kept the flower and didn't share it," she replied.

"You're, right. Perhaps nobody taught her to share when she was little," I said.

"Why did she take Rapunzel?" she asked.

"She didn't want to share the magic hair either," I told her.

"Why?" she asked, using her favorite word.

"She wanted to keep it for herself," I said, "Maybe if she had taught other people the song, then she could have used the hair or the flower to help many people, but she didn't. She was greedy. So she lost the flower, and then she lost Rapunzel, because she was selfish."

(long pause while processing....)

"The witch is not a good person," she declared... and then went to sleep.

The witch in Rapunzel created a problem for my daughter. Because in the movie, the witch seems nice and treats Rapunzel kindly and Rapunzel even calls her "mom". So at first, my daughter could not figure out why the witch was "bad", because "moms are good". The actions of the witch at the end were very upsetting to my daughter and she's been processing it and asking lots of good questions about it to help her place it within her worldview and value system.

So between the book and the movie, we've been having an ongoing discussion about people's motivations, the consequences of their actions and how sometimes people are not what they seem and they can be deceptive, greedy or selfish (and that these traits are not good, and we should strive to be honest and giving).

So the inspirations for teaching values can be found in almost any book or movie. We just have to be mindful of those opportunities and in-tune with our kids and the moral dilemmas they are currently processing. Then our role as parents is to provide feedback and guidance to help them see the right/wrong course of action.

I have found that "values books" often tend to be a bit too preachy, and this can turn kids off. The stories in those books are often a bit boring and too contrived, and kids quickly pick up on that. I have found that it's better to just pick up good books with good stories, and then find the learning opportunities within the pages of well-written children's literature.

For example, right now, my daughter is obsessed with a book called "Lucia and the Light" because the girl in the book has a white cat, and so do we. So when we read that book, my daughter insists that I read it with her name, not "Lucia" and I have to call the cat "Mun-kaow" because that's the name of our cat. The girl in the story is very brave and clever, so I'm very happy that my daughter identifies strongly with her. The trolls in the story are pretty scary, but when I get "scared" reading that part, my daughter holds my hand and says, "Don't worry Daddy, I will protect you."

There's nothing preachy or "values-orientated" in that book, and yet my daughter is still learning to be brave and clever and protective of others and we reinforce that with our actions and words throughout the day, "Oh? You can climb that tree? You are strong and brave like Lucia!" To which she says, "Yes, I am."