Customer Reviews

Just Pretend

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Well illustated book with profound implications for children but, as detailed below, use caution and discuss Santa Claus and God belief with your child before, during, and after your child reads this book - careful and considerate parental attention required!

I've been having an interesting visit with my 8 year old daughter who is staying with me this summer. I gave her 3 books written by Dan Barker and she was fine with "Maybe Yes, Maybe No", a story teaching critical thinking via an example of a girl questioning a story about ghosts. Then, she started reading "Just Pretend, A Freethought Book for Children". Innocent title, that, and she was enjoying the book when it talked about the myth of Santa Claus as I had discussed the Santa Claus issues with her last Christmas.

Unfortunately, I had never discussed the possibility that god belief was a myth, not in clear terms anyway. She is being raised as catholic by her mom. When she got to the page which showed 4 cartoons of god as a woman, man, animal, and half animal-half human, she thought the cartoon was funny, then she read the page and a few that followed it and tossed the book on the floor in a distinct rejection reaction.

Excerpt segments from the pages that shocked my 8 year old daughter:

"Do you know that many people believe in God? They think that God runs the world and runs the universe. Some people grow up and learn that God is *just pretend*, like Santa. But some people still believe God is real."

... skip several pages that build the case to the page that resulted in my daughter's rejection reaction ...

"Why do so many people believe in a god? It's just like the Santa Claus myth. People believe in a god because they were told God is real. Most people were told about a god when they were very young children."

... --- end quote ---

My daughter asked me if crosses and Jesus Christ were myths, too, and when I replied Yes with a little explanation it appeared she was too shocked to continue the discussion, so I put the book aside for awhile. I later read a few more pages to her trying to explain the non-belief point of view and she was more receptive at that time. Sometime this weekend she and I will finish the book and will discuss the ideas in the book more thoroughly.

Even though the approaches in the book are consistent with my views, I wish the author had used a gentler approach to introduce the concept of non-belief as the "Santa Claus as myth / God as myth" approach may be too shocking for children raised to believe God is real. Then again, this book has really got my daughter thinking critically about religion and with quite a bit of input from an adult (especially for younger children brought up to believe God is real), maybe the shock approach is the best approach to get children to *think* critically about religion rather than just accept what they've been told without question.

Just pretend - A freethought book for children Illustrated by Alma Cuebas. I will just quote a passage to illustrate the author's step by easy step approach to the question of belief. "Why so many children believe in Santa Claus? "Because when they were young they were told that Santa is real. "Children believe Santa is real because they enjoy the story. "It is fun to think of gifts, elves, reindeer, and a jolly old man with a red suit who secretly brings gifts into your house at night." You see! It is not rocket science. Let us facilitate honest thinking.

This is a great book to give a child. It introduces the concept of thinking through what you are told, rather than just accepting everything you hear.
It addresses mythology and reality, and helps them learn to tell the difference.

I was excited to find this book and felt by the other reviews that it would be a good fit for our family (most of the negative reviews seemed to be by believers and the cautions about treading lightly for kids who had been indoctrinated didn't apply in our case.) Unfortunately, after reading the book, I shipped it back w/o sharing it with our son.

My main disappointment is that about a third to half the book concentrates on debunking various Judeo-Christian myths with the assumption that the child has heard of and presumably bought into them. Our son has thankfully not been exposed to any of these, so I think all these stories will just confuse him. I probably would have kept the book anyway had it not been for one picture that I found totally offensive: a depiction of David, sword in hand, holding the severed head of Goliath w/ blood dripping from it. It is just too terrifying for young children, and I don't believe it added to the story line either. I hope the author considers replacing it with something far less graphic in the next revision!

Some good things: I liked the way the author uses the parallel between believing in Santa and believing in God and tries to give some reasons why people believe (that a young kid can understand). The book also touches on how different traditions perceive God differently and has some nice transitions into the ideas of free thinking. I don't share the criticism of some other reviews that the book is too "shallow". I do think the book could be a helpful counter balance for a kid who has been exposed to Christian myths.

Excellent material that fosters critical thinking in children! The pictures are also great.

a bit harsh if the (young) reader is already being indoctrinated in a religion. A good conversation starter.

What more could I want? My son loves Dan Barker's children's books. The ideas are interestingly and simply set down without condescension. A great buy!

When I ordered this book, I was expecting to read about various religions and their different takes on god. I was expecting for these religious beliefs to parallel the Santa Claus myth to help the child associate what is myth and what is real. I was hoping that the text would teach why people believe and that it's okay to believe, but it's okay not to believe too. Instead, the book came off sounding like a recruiting tool for some sort of fraternity or sorority of athiests (particularly the illustration toward the back when one athiest hands another person making their own decision an athiest t-shirt and appears to welcome him to the team).

This book doesn't seem to teach tolerance at it's core. Instead it is rather insulting to other people of other religions. Let's face it, religion is a very passionate topic in the world, and this book made me wonder how many kids would get just as preachy about athiesm as some christian kids are about the Bible.

Overall, this wasn't what I was looking for. It lacked taste and confused honesty about religion and God with word play. At times it seemed like the authors were trying to promote athiests as the only "free thinkers" and that's just unfair.

I found this book somewhat disappointing, because it's too narrow minded. Barker has failed to find a healthy balance in his theistic views, and his conclusions are very shallow.

There is a significant difference between believing in Santa Claus, and believing in the nature of the Infinite and the Sustaining Reality of Being. We should not rule out the possibility that there is intrinsic meaning or deeper purpose to life and the cosmos.

Even though our religious tales are portrayed with childlike simplicity, I believe that they reflect deep, spiritual truths, as our finite minds cannot comprehend the Infinite. For me personally, after turning to atheism for a significant phase of my life, I have come full circle, back to religion - this time wiser and maturer. There's more to religion than fundamentalist interpretations, believe it or not.

I don't think that this book is really free-thinking. It's more of a dogma, and aims to brain-wash kids into believing that the universe and all of life is nothing but an accident. This is Barker's personal faith-system, and I think it's damaging to package it up in a seemingly innocent book for kids.