Prove All Things

Family Friendly Media Recommendations #1

I’m a father of four who enjoys the challenge of finding media that is “good.” I won’t endeavor to define this quality, but I think it will reveal itself through the items I cover.

On a roughly monthly basis I will share some sort of family friendly media recommendations with you all. I plan to have at least two in each post and they will be relatively short. I don’t see these are full-scale reviews - I encourage each of you to read, watch, or listen to each of my recommendations before sharing them with your children (for the reasons I will outline below!)

Firstly, when you share media with someone, especially a child, that recommendation rests on a foundation of trust - the recipient believes that you think it’s something they’d enjoy (not something too frightening, etc.) There have been several times where I have relied on reviews or the rating of a piece of media to decide if it’s appropriate, and I’ve typically regretted it. Mostly because there are thing only your children may be sensitive too.

For example - any actual animal on screen that’s in peril was a nonstarter for my oldest. There was a scene in “Benji” (a dog movie you will find recommended as kid friendly), where poor Benji gets kicked by the bad guy. My daughter was despondent. Even when Benji triumphs in the end, (sorry, spoiler) it wasn’t enough to redeem the movie in her eyes. At least in a book you’re reading aloud to your kids, you can “edit” some of these things in the moment (I had to do this occasionally in the “Little House” series I recall).

Additionally, in my house, “movie night” is for everyone. So although my oldest may now be able to handle certain films, the ritual of a weekly movie night is about all of us watching it together. We cycle through who gets to pick the weeks movie, but it’s always with the knowledge that it’s going to be something everyone can stomach (and that dad has seen before). Typically, I introduce something new on my movie night, and if it’s a hit it’ll make its way into the kid’s rotation.

So why “pre-screen” everything? I’ll add that all mine are 8 years old or younger. As they age I might not feel this as being quite as necessary. But for now, if there’s an action scene where a character is in mortal peril, for the child to be able to look back at you and say “does poor Simba make it?” and you nod, helps them get through a movie like that the first time. Any subsequent re-watching’s will be relatively stress free.

So, without further delay, here are September’s recommendations:

Zita the Spacegirl

Ben Hatke’s “Zita the Spacegirl” trilogy of graphic novels are wonderful. We’re on our second set because the first round was “loved” to death by my oldest two (My third is working their way through them now).

The illustrations are captivating and tell most of the story - the books have been a bedtime staple of my pre-readers (we'll run through them occasionally as bedtime reading), giving them something to enjoy by flashlight.

I love Zita and her motley crew. She’s strong and determined, and her “superpower” is her ability to inspire. An overarching theme is owning your mistakes, realizing they’re part of life, and doing all you can to rectify and overcome them.

Final Word: I’d recommend it for all ages. Both the illustrations and the story have captured my children’s imaginations from at least the age of 3.

The Chronicles of Narnia

This is where you roll your eyes and say “Hambone, I thought you were trying to lead us to some new content we can share with our kids - everyone knows the Chronicles of Narnia.”

And I reply “Yes, but have you listened to the Radio Theatre version?” And hopefully you’d reply that you hadn’t. Or, if you had, we’d talk about that - and maybe the weather.

For the unfamiliar, radio theatre is, per the publisher, “the bridge between film and audiobooks in the format of a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. It is an immersive experience for listeners to imagine the characters and the story through dialogue, music and sound effects.”

It’s $70, and that may sound steep, but it’s all 7 books. 22 hours of high quality audio entertainment. We’ve taken these on road trips and I will catch myself getting sucked into the story (particularly with “The Horse and His Boy” - my favorite).

I believe they sell them piecemeal if you’d like to try one out before committing to the full series. I bought the CDs and my oldest loved swapping them herself and picking which story to listen to. These CDs were also “loved” to death, but I see that as a natural consequence of a gift thoroughly enjoyed.

Final Word: I’d recommend it for all ages. It might be easier for children to identify with the characters because of the voice acting. I’d also grant that some of the more intense scenes are amplified by the format, but my children personally have not had an issue.

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Thanks for reading, let me know what you think! It’s a little light, I can delve deeper if you all think that’d be more valuable - or try to cover more ground in each issue. I spend a lot of time searching for quality family entertainment and I’m hoping to save you some of that trouble!