THE MYSTERY OF THE INVISIBLE KNIGHT
by Bill Myers

I have just finished reading a review copy of this new book, second in a new series called BLOODHOUNDS, INC by the author of the MCGEE AND ME and the THE INCREDIBLE WORLD OF WALLY MCDOOGLE series. And I am upset. Yes, it was funny. Yes, kids will devour this new series. Yes, it will probably be another best-selling series for Bethany House. Yes, it is an alternative to Goosebumps (which, I'm afraid I haven't read any of.) The theme of these books seems to be that as Christians, children do not need to be afraid of ghosts, because when people die, they go immediately to stand before God in judgment, and they are not allowed to stop off and haunt houses and scare people along the way. The two stories in the series thus far involve the children in solving mysteries which seem to involve ghosts, but turn out to have perfectly natural explanations when solved.

But I am upset because nothing much in this book would really happen in real life. The humor comes from the inconsiderate behavior of the two Christian children who are the main characters, and the only real spiritual content comes from the father's talks with these thoughtless children. When their own carelessness contributes to an accident that nearly kills their dog, and they are all meditating on the vet's verdict that she might not make it, they all remember a similar statement another doctor made, just like this one, right before their mother died six months earlier from breast cancer. The dad has said he always prays for their protection. So the children ask him why, then, was their dog not protected? Dad says, 'I don't know. I don't always know why bad things happen. I don't know why Slobs got hit. I don't know why your mother...' and then he tells the children that even if they don't understand, they still need to trust God (from page 51).

The children had been totally irresponsible in caring for the dog and directly set the stage for the accident to happen. I can understand the father's desire not to lay a burden of guilt on the children should the dog die, but to imply that the dog's predicament was as hard to understand as their mother's death seems a little too easy on the children. Perhaps the father felt the dog's near death was punishment enough for the irresponsibility that had led to it, but that same episode had left their home flooded, and inflicted property damage on a neighbor. Dad said they had to pay for it, but you never see them earning money to do that. They just go on to other slapstick accidents which would have severe consequences in real life, but seem to have little lasting effect on anyone in this book. Most of Dad's spiritual counsel is related to not being afraid of ghosts and ancient curses uttered by dead men. And he does urge them to pray about their concerns. But it seems to me Dad gives mostly lip service to serious Christian character building in his children's habits and relationship to each other, because if their behavior improved, it would spoil the source of all the slapstick humor. Reading this book gave me the impression I was reading the book version of a Saturday morning cartoon where characters throw each other around and fall off cliffs with no lasting damage to anybody.

If this isn't enough nonsense, we can add J.E.R.E.M.I.A.H. ( which stands for Johnson Electronic Reductive Entity Memory Inductive Assembly Housing) -- a little electronic whatsit that pops up in watches and computer monitors and TV screens whether they are on or not) and talks to the children. He becomes visible, speaks his piece, and disappears at odd times.

By the end of the book, the children have solved their mystery, and their dad, who owns a radio station, is able to announce their success on his news broadcast. In the process of solving their mystery, the children have twice been instrumental in knocking down all the armor in the Medieval section of the museum. They have hidden in a dinosaur skeleton until the museum closed so they could do their sleuthing when the curators were gone, and they got entangled in and knocked over several more exhibits in the dark. All this with no consequences. The end justified the means, I guess, or so a young reader might believe. And, of course, the children took all kinds of fool-hardy risks in trying to nab villains on their own.

How do the rest of you feel about this sort of thing? When the world writes nonsense primarily to entertain, I understand. But when Christian writers produce it and baptize it with a few Bible verses and a few words of spiritual advice, is it really that much better than Goosebumps, the series it claims to be an alternative for? Is it better to fill children's minds with Christian nonsense than secular nonsense? (OK, maybe you'd rather have your kids read it than Goosebumps) What does it say about the church when this stuff hits the Christian best seller charts ? I'm interested in your opinions on this. Please e-mail them to me.

 Copyright ©1998 Barbara Radisavljevic