As I’ve chosen lately to read books to my kids as a way of waking them up in the morning, I’ve sort of realized that I prefer more God-focused stories that can get them thinking proper thoughts and ignite that eternal perspective than not. It’s not that the previous two books that we read — Danny Dunn and the Smallifying Machine (1971) or The Borrowers (1952) — were especially ungodly or anything, but they were set in universes where God didn’t exist, and where the characters were perfectly fine with that being the case. That’s all well and good with fantasy and such, but if I can give my kids a gift in the morning before they head off to school, I want it be the gift of turning their eyes upon the Lord. For that reason, I’m very grateful that some friends gifted us a handful of books from the Lamplighter Collection.
Prior to visiting these friends in another state, I’d never heard of this series, but now that I’ve see it, I absolutely love the concept! The editors acquire antique books and stories from the public domain, vet and edit them for modern audiences, and re-publish them in classy hardcover format, thereby rescuing these wonderful stories which would otherwise be lost to history. We’ve got three books from the collection on our shelves, and these are exactly what I wanted for our morning reads.
This first story that we tried is about a poor little girl named Jessica whose ratty home and drunk and absent mother leaves her essentially homeless and orphaned in the streets of London. One day she meets a man selling coffee on the street corner, and her wretchedness causes him to have an ounce of pity. He allows her to have some stale bread and a cup of coffee, but to make sure that she’s no beggar demanding handouts, he promises to give her more only if he doesn’t see her face for a week. She delays her return, and the following week a moderate relationship between girl and seller develops. Daniel is a private man who refuses to open up about himself, his home, or his daily engagements, but when Jessica innocently follows him one day, she discovers that he’s the keeper of a church and he absolutely refuses to let her attend, lest he ruin his reputation or that of the church and its respectable attendees. Jessica can’t resist the temptation to learn more about this church, however, and her disobedience ultimately leads to questions about God, prayer, and this special world of Christians.
Seeing as this book is nearly 150 years old, it’s no surprise that it carries feelings of melodrama and preachiness, but the story is interesting enough that those elements are obvious only to the critical dad reading it aloud to his young kids. My kids (10 and 12) loved the story, and the preachiness is nothing I’d complain about. Plus, it was fun starting my mornings off with an old British accent (guvna’).
Lessons in this story include the fact that every human being is precious to God, no matter her status, and that God desires that his followers be no respecter of persons (from James 2:1-4). Beyond these are lessons against greed and arrogance and, to a degree, two-facedness. That’s a lot to pack into a little book like this for kids, but I’m glad that Stratton did.
We enjoyed this book and are excited to try out the next on our shelf, The Giant Killer. It’s possible that my kids might get sick of these books if they’re perpetually melodramatic or too preachy (like if more nine-year-old new converts throw out words like “propitiation” when they’re gently convicting an adult, for example) but I’ll wait for them to tell me so. Until then, we’ll read what we’ve got and enjoy spending our mornings reading about children growing in Jesus!
©2023 E.T.