“The Children’s Book of Virtues”
By William Bennett illustrated by Michael Hague.
Simon and Schuster, New York, 1995, 111 pages, K-4.
Virtues are the attitudes and habits we develop to lead a wholesome life based on charity and other centeredness. Virtues allow us to give to others without demanding some kind of return. This helps people live authentic lives based on God’s grace. Because of this, it is of the highest consequence to build virtues in ourselves and in others.
The divine virtues are faith, hope and charity. These are infused by God in people’s souls. The cardinal virtues, prudence, temperance, fortitude and justice are assisted by grace but are also built upon personal choices and decisions. We must choose them. From the cardinal virtues we see additional virtues develop such as honesty, courage, self-discipline, loyalty and friendship.
All the virtues help people live a happy and fulfilling lives. William Bennett, the former Secretary of Education, has written an inspiring book on these topics. The name of the title is “The Children’s Book of Virtues.”
Bennett divides the book into four chapter sets. It begins with courage and perseverance. He uses well known stories such as the “Little Dutch Boy” to teach about making courageous decisions under difficult and lonely circumstances.
The little boy knows that there is no one to stop the hole in the dyke but himself. But he is by himself and is one small boy against the force of the North Sea. As the water begins leaking through the flood wall, he chooses and put his finger into the hole and stops the potentially disastrous flood.
However, no one helps him as night sets in and all alone, he must continue to be brave during a cold, dark night. His courage will eventually be rewarded, but he doesn’t know this until the end of the story.
The child’s decisions will have to be freely chosen and will form his character. This is how virtue is built. The successive sets build other types of virtue such as responsibility, work, compassion, faith, honesty and friendship.
Some of the stories will show the consequences of making bad choices. One such example is “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” He manipulates the goodness of the villagers by crying for help during a supposed wolf attack of his flock of sheep.
When they run to his defense, he laughs at them. He thinks this was a good trick.
However, one day a wolf actually attacks the sheep. Now when he cries for help, the villagers do not believe him. Who would ever believe a liar? Bennett demonstrates that honesty is really the best policy.
Throughout the book, Bennett uses stories that emphasize the values he is trying to teach. I think the book would be particularly useful oral reading with a younger family member. Here, the adult could read the story and share the value being emphasized with the child. The adult reader could then have a conversation with the youngster about the story. Questions such as: what virtue does the story show us? What can we learn from the story? Have we ever seen someone exhibiting that virtue? Why is this virtue important?
The artwork in the book is lush and beautiful. The pictures show great detail and will be exciting for children to view. Though older students, fourth grade and higher, can read this book, children will particularly benefit if a caring adult reads the stories with them. By reading to the child or children, the adults will model the virtues being emphasized. This is a great book, within the series of childhood development books written by the author, and I hope you go to the library to check out the title.
