Every book -- every GOOD book -- has a theme, an overriding point that, in the greatest of books, is never forgotten. Every plot point, every character, every description of place supports the theme. I have come to realize that the very greatest books -- and there are only a few -- discuss the relationship of God and man. That would include Milton's "Paradise Lost", "Moby Dick," Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables" and Dosteoevsky's "Brothers Karamozov". These books are not for the faint of heart! I've only read 2 of them and am working on a 3rd; "Les Mis" was just too depressing. But, every great book has a theme. "Alice in Wonderland's" is the joy of childhood, "Winnie-the-Pooh's" is the wisdom of simple things, "Pride and Predudice's" is that the more pride one has, the more prejudiced one will be.
Not everyone is going to write a great book of world literature: witness how few have been written. But, we can still learn about carrying a theme through and supporting it with every tool at our disposal by examining the books we read. And, the great question to ask your children to discover this when reading is "What's the point?" "What is the author trying to say?" "And, how do we know?" "Prove it!" As my H. S. English teacher, Dr. Grosch, used to write at the top of my analyses of Shakespearean sonnets: "Evidence!"
Perhaps this won't be the most fun time you spend reading with your children, but, when their eyes are opened to it, their own writing will become so much better. When they see that the preacher in Moby Dick climbs up into a pulpit made of whale ivory and pulls the ladder up behind him to preach from his literal "ivory tower," they will see the breadth of what can be done in their own writing.
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