Michelle Ann Abate’s Raising Your Kids Right: Children’s Literature and American Political Conservatism details the rise of conservative themed children’s literature from 1993 to 2008. Although children’s literature often portrays political messages, Abate argues that these messages have increasingly become more explicit (168-169). As a result, she contends that examining these works can create an understanding of the sociopolitical ideologies underlying them and their overall impact (p. 24). More specifically, Abate believes that “these books embody an important intellectual, material, and cultural component to the rise of the New Right, the power of millennial social conservatism, and the growth of the right-wing branch of the GOP” (p. 6).
Abate begins by detailing William Bennett’s The Book of Virtues. According to Abate, Bennett’s work emerged out of the fear of a “culture war” in the 1990s and a desire to recreate definitive moral values (p. 31-32). The text also led to a new found emphasis on an “us versus them” mentality, and conservatives began to counter what they perceived as the Left’s attack on tradition. For example, Terri Birkett’s Traux served as a parody of Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax . Importantly, Traux also ushered in two new trends in the market for conservative children’s literature. The first trend the book ushered was a system that emphasized grassroots movement. At the same time, it also signaled the birth of a system in which commercial enterprises began to further their own interests through politically charged children’s books. The growth of evangelical Christianity only exacerbated the proliferation of right-wing political books. For instance, the Left Behind books, a series of Christian fiction aimed at children, helped to further not only a religious message but also a political message.
One of the greatest changes in the nature of children’s books, according to Abate, is that they have become increasingly authored by public figures. Bill O’Reilly’s book The O’Reilly Factor for Kids helps in furthering the self-help genre to children. At the same time, it recognizes that children are a growing demographic that has considerable consumer power. As a result, O’Reilly’s work extends the O’Reilly brand and demonstrates conservative commercialism (p. 130-131). The work also speaks to a broader trend of minimizing the differences between adults and children in the children’s book market. For instance, the Help! Mom! series, although marketed at children, requires a large grasp of political satire that may be lost on most youth (p. 155-163). Thus, the series helps to reinforce political division rather than to inform about political issues.
Unfortunately, although Abate helps further discussion on a wide variety of children’s literature, her examination is highly flawed. Little interest is given to the underlying theme that connects these works. The author spends a great deal of the book analyzing the contradictions in the works rather than the messages that these books seem to portray. Furthermore, a discussion of why these messages are important to a right-wing audience in the first place is missing. Abate does shortly discuss the “culture wars” of the 1990s and the increased emphasis on childhood innocence, but these discussions are ultimately too brief to adequately explain the nature of these books. As a result, Raising Your Kids Right seems better understood as a series of essays rather than a collective analysis of conservative literature.
It should also be noted that Abate’s criticisms are often contradictory. For example, in her discussion of the Help! Mom! series, she faults the author for creating satire that is directed less at children than adults (p.158). For Abate, children are unable to grasp this political satire and many of the messages of the works. While this may be true, the author is less willing to apply the same belief to some of her criticisms. For instance, Abate argues that Cheney’s inclusion of the phrase “Free to think and believe and pursue happiness in our own way, we recognize the rights of others to do the same”(qtd on p.118) underneath a multicultural image causes children to place themselves to an “unnamed other” (p.118). Abate follows this by stating that “for children who may resist this classification as other, the inclusion of the Seal of the United States, along with its motto ‘E Pluribus Unum,’ reminds them that they may ultimately—and even inevitably—assimilated into the one” (p.118). Yet, if children are unable to understand political satire, it is unclear how they would understand the political implications of cultural assimilation, diversity, and the Latin motto.
Finally, Abate is often critical of the authors of conservative books even when these criticisms do not have any discernable impact on the works themselves. For example, the author details Bennett’s gambling addictions, but this addiction ultimately develops after the publication of his work. As a result, the critique seems more of an ad hominem rather than a genuine examination of the book. For the reader, the results are meant to “cast increasing doubt on Bennett’s commitment to moral absolutes and his own possession of allegedly timeless virtues” (p.49). Yet, this inclusion presents little to the discussion of the political impact of conservative children’s literature.
Ultimately, Abate’s work is an informative although flawed work. The author’s examination of conservative children’s literature does provide a unique look into an often-overlooked topic. Unfortunately, the author fails to account for why conservative politics stresses the importance of many of these issues until roughly the end of her work (p. 168-173). As a result, Raising Your Kids Right is more beneficial to scholars interested in the individual books that Abate examines and how they demonstrate conservative politics. For those looking for broader trends in conservative children’s literature, however, their needs may be better met elsewhere.
