LifeDate Summer 2024 – Made For Life
by Grace MacPherson
I cannot remember the last time I read a book in which the main character had more than four siblings—and I’m an avid reader. Almost without exception, today’s popular books feature characters who are only children, or who have just one sibling.
Going back a few centuries, the results are somewhat better. The Chronicles of Narnia features four siblings, the Wilder family in the Little House series has four sisters by the final book, and Pride and Prejudice tells the story of five sisters seeking eligible husbands.
But where are all the large families?
To the average reader, four or five children is a large family. But I grew up with six siblings. One of my closest friends has nine younger siblings. Another has eight. My two pastors have six and nine children. For me, this is normal. Yet families of this size are rarely, if ever, depicted in fiction.
God does not bless all people with children, for reasons we cannot understand. Some men and women are single or infertile or suffer numerous miscarriages. Some families have only a few children—or only one—when the parents would have joyfully welcomed more. And such families belong in fiction as well.
But typical fiction does not celebrate the gift of children and of life. It does not capture a godly yearning for children, even when God does not grant that request. Rather, fiction normalizes broken families. What was the last book you read in which the main character’s parents were both alive and were married? Or when the main character had younger siblings who were more than stereotyped nuisances? And on goes the list.
Our children’s values are shaped in large part by the stories that they read. And as Lutherans who value the sanctity of life, finding stories that affirm our values feels impossible at times.
Believe me, it is possible—but it can be very difficult.
Life-affirming fiction can do more than address abortion, euthanasia, and other current issues. While those are topics that should be discussed from a Lutheran perspective, many books uphold the value of life in subtler ways.
As I mentioned earlier, books that celebrate children and families are truly prolife books. But stories with other themes also uphold the sanctity of human life.
For example, while many books move on quickly from the deaths of characters (particularly in epic fantasy), J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings allows time for both characters and readers to grieve throughout the story.
Another example is the autobiography The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom. Corrie and her family worked tirelessly to protect Jews from the horrors of the Holocaust. Even in the concentration camps, Corrie saw the value in every human life—even the Nazis.
Yes, many authors write excellent, life-affirming fiction, but those books can be hard to find. Because of this, I have compiled a list of fiction that is prolife in one way or another. Hopefully this will be of help to you in finding excellent books both for yourself and for the children in your life. (Note that I don’t fully endorse the worldviews of all of these books, but they are still helpful in teaching the value of human life.)
Recommended Classics: Little Men (Louisa May Alcott), Eight Cousins (Louisa May Alcott), Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (Margaret Sidney), Anne of Ingleside (L.M. Montgomery), Rainbow Valley (L.M. Montgomery), The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien)
Recommended Contemporary Books: The Hiding Place (Corrie Ten Boom), All of a Kind Family (Sydney Taylor), The Penderwicks (Jeanne Birdsall), Gregor the Overlander (Suzanne Collins)
Grace MacPherson is the author of The King’s Sword and Domitian” (publication pending summer 2024) and the founder of the prolife fundraising project Bracelets for Life. She resides in Casper, Wyoming, with her family.