A Landscape with Dragons: The Battle for Your Child's Mind [Paperback]

Michael D. O'Brien (Author)

Book Description

The Harry Potter series of books and movies are wildly popular. Many Christians see the books as largely if not entirely harmless. Others regard them as dangerous and misleading. In his book A Landscape with Dragons, Harry Potter critic Michael O'Brien examines contemporary children's literature and finds it spiritually and morally wanting. His analysis, written before the rise of the popular Potter books and films, anticipates many of the problems Harry Potter critics point to. A Landscape with Dragons is a controversial, yet thoughtful study of what millions of young people are reading and the possible impact such reading may have on them.

In this study of the pagan invasion of children's culture, O'Brien, the father of six, describes his own coming to terms with the effect it has had on his family and on most families in Western society. His analysis of the degeneration of books, films, and videos for the young is incisive and detailed. Yet his approach is not simply critical, for he suggests a number of remedies, including several tools of discernment for parents and teachers in assessing the moral content and spiritual impact of this insidious revolution. In doing so, he points the way to rediscovery of time-tested sources, and to new developments in Christian culture.

If you have ever wondered why a certain children's book or film made you feel uneasy, but you couldn't figure out why, this book is just what you need. This completely revised, much expanded second edition also includes a very substantial recommended reading list of over 1,000 books for kindergarten through highschool.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 261 pages
• Publisher: Ignatius Press; Rev Exp edition (January 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898706785
• ISBN-13: 978-0898706789
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #168,997 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

119 of 127 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent resource for parents, October 4, 2000

By 

David Zampino "21st Century Hobbit" (Delavan, Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Landscape with Dragons: The Battle for Your Child's Mind (Paperback)

In this volume, Michael O'Brien has provided both and invaluable service to parents (like myself) who want their children to read, but who are also concerned about much of the reading material currently available. He has analyzed children's literature, concentrating especially in the genre of fantasy and fairy story. He has clearly and cogently demonstrated how neo-paganism has become the dominant worldview of many authors in this genre.

Unlike many Christian authors, O'Brien has not made the mistake of throwing the baby out with the bath water. He does not lump all fantasy literature together in one category and toss it out. He carefully demonstrates the difference between good and bad fantasy literature, or, if you will, authentic and inauthentic fairy stories.

I do have a few points of contention, but they are minor, and detract very little from the overall value of the book.

1) CS Lewis is identified correctly as an Anglican -- a member of the Church of England -- but incorrectly as a member of that church's Evangelical wing. Lewis, in fact, attended a "High Church" parish, and strongly resisted political factions within churches.

2) JRR Tolkien is correctly held up as the model by which modern fantasy and fairy story should be judged. Having said this, very little actual analysis is provided for Tolkien's writings.

3) Similarly, in the book's "blurb", Charles Williams is held up -- but then not analyzed in the text. An analysis of Williams would have made O'Brien's concerns about Lewis' novel "That Hideous Strength" make more sense. (I'd still disagree with O'Brien on this one, but his case would have been stronger and easier to sensibly defend.)

4) O'Brien's analysis of Anne McCaffrey's "Pern" stories needed either to be fully developed, or eliminated entirely. O'Brien is using the image of the dragon as a neo-pagan symbol as one of the cornerstones of his book, and tries to place McCaffrey's "good dragons" within this context. To me, it was unconvincing.

Overall, an excellent book. As a final note to parents, O'Brien has helpfully added a lengthy appendix listing good (and usually available) books for children of all ages, arranged by level of difficulty and author. An extremely helpful resource for homeschooling parents.

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every Father Should Read This Book Once A Year, September 8, 2004

By 

Maillew (Silicon Valley CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Landscape with Dragons: The Battle for Your Child's Mind (Paperback)

An excellent and inspiring book. I use the word "inspiring" in the old fashioned sense of "it made me take action" not merely "it made me feel good."

I re-read this book every year or so, not only to dip into the wonderful appendix of recommended books, but to rekindle my courage and dedication to raising my sons. O'Brien writes in mythic tones as he recommends mythic literature. The old stories dealt with "powers and principalities" of good and evil, and O'Brien reminds us that it is ever so. Our children become flush-faced and wide-eyed at such stories, but we have allowed ourselves to be diluted and deluded into thinking that gray is the only reality. We lose not only black and white, but the primary colors as well!

O'Brien is a Catholic, a Christian - and is both unapologetic and unobtrusive with his convictions. That is, he makes clear the traditional rationale for his thinking, but the reader neither has to agree nor adopt those convictions to come to the same conclusions.

There are some books which one revisits again and again, and some authors you look forward to meeting and talking with. This book (and his Sojourners novels) and this author are in that category.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars seldom boring, May 29, 2001

By 

Paul Stilwell (Canada, B.C.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Landscape with Dragons: The Battle for Your Child's Mind (Paperback)

I'm a single twenty year old who has no children. I had read all of O'Briens fiction novels and was thirsting for anything by Michael O'Brien. So I bought A Landscape With Dragons and read it twice over completely enthralled with what I was reading. All of my sneaking suspicions and intuitions about the culture I basically grew up with were not only confirmed, but were enfleshed, and brought out in way that was spiritually horrifying yet courageous in Michael O'Briens sustaining, powerful, sinewy way. But again, as in all of O'Briens work, one is thankful that he doesn't simply do right-wing hugging. No, he convincingly calls us to prayer and implants succesfully, as always, that ferment and spear in our conscience. Chesterton is always for me, a huge formation in the way of looking. O'Brien is always for me, a huge formation in the way of seeking sanctity in order to be looked upon.