Hue & Cry by Elizabeth Yates

Hue and Cry is another of the many contemporary books offered as Christian reading for young people. If you frequent this review page, then you are among those who feel that it is necessary to be discerning about what your Christian young people read. Hue and Cry definitely requires some scrutinizing. If there were nothing else wrong with it, the most disturbing aspect is that the story is built around one very captivating, romantic philosophy that would likely go undiscerned by the young reader at which it is aimed. However, it will nonetheless still put a very unhealthy spin on his or her thinking process. The story is about a young horse thief who meets a young deaf girl. The girl takes a fancy to the thief. The girl’s father and brothers are part of a group that is sworn to the apprehension and prosecution of horse thieves.

After the girl becomes friends with the horse thief, she learns about the horse that he has stolen. There is much searching going on for the horse and the thief, with much of it being done by the girl’s father and brothers. The girl tells them that she knows where the horse is, but that she will only tell them its location if they promise not to turn in the thief. This is directly contrary to the oath to which they have pledged themselves. But had they taken no oath at all, this would still be against the law, and contrary to honest behavior. Let us not forget this story is billed as Christian literature for impressionable young people.

These characters in this story make this dishonest commitment because the girl "believes" in the thief, and her father decides to believe in him also. The girl and her father just "know" that he has a "good heart," and if given time, he will "do the right thing." So, they break the law, abort the justice that they are sworn to uphold, hide the stolen merchandise, and aid and abet a fugitive, all because they "know" that he will not disappoint them. I wonder that the author does not realize the evil and loss that would be wrought upon the rest of the community as so many precious days were being wasted while its members search futilely for a horse being hid by the very people sworn to prevent this evil. This rivals Hollywood for perverted logic and the inversion of the concepts of good and evil.

Yet, this is all portrayed by the author as extremely admirable behavior (and portrayed so to the children of Christian parents). After all, here is a dad who "understands" his child, and has the "courage" to side with her in the things that are important to her (regardless of the law, his own word, and almighty God). Alas, the principle of right and wrong is cast to the winds in the face of such important matters as a daughter’s whim. The father even gives the thief his own horse in case things go awry before he becomes honest, so that he has a means of escape from justice.

Of course, as in all fairy tale fantasies, everything turns out just perfectly in the end, and everyone lives happily ever after. Unfortunately, in real life, the same kind of story takes place somewhere every day with disastrous results and unhappy consequences for all concerned. The girl always "knows" that the cad she has fallen for is going to do an about face. But Jeremiah 13:23 asks the rhetorical question, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil." And it also gives us the answer—those who are accustomed to evil continue to do so. Only coming to Christ makes those kinds of changes, but this horse thief does not even receive a witness, which is something we at least could expect in a truly Christian story.

However, as is the author’s goal, the average impressionable young reader views the whole thing as rather gallant, and will generally be wholly taken in by the deceptive way in which the story just seems to sound "right." Unfortunately, young people often expect real life to turn out like the stories they read; however God says, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!"—Isaiah 5:20. Is that what we want Christian reading to teach our children?

If you are ever available to hear the burdened hearts of parents grieving over now-grown children, you will hear the stories of many a young lady whose life was ruined by someone in whom she "believed" and just "knew" that in time he would "do the right thing." He didn’t, though. Sometimes, the parents unwisely gave in, trying to be the kind of "good parents" that young people come to expect by reading such misleading stories. Sometimes, the girl just takes matters into her own hands despite her parents’ warnings because of what she "just knows" or "just feels." In either case, things generally do not turn out well, because in real life frogs do not turn into princes, and the life of a thief does not prepare him to be a hero, and, thus, people continue to be what they are. When a young lady expects life to become her fantasy, she is on a course straight to disaster. She spends a miserable life living with what she "knew" would change—but didn’t.

But, why should we wonder why she would expect things to turn out in such a way? After all, how many storybooks had she read? Had they not all worked out just fine in the end? Did she not believe that these stories were about people, and about life? Had she not been prepared to expect things to turn out well? After all, she followed the manual.  What went wrong? Children’s books are often full of this particular romantic misinformation. It can easily destroy a life. A life is not a fairy tale. In it reality cannot be wiped away with the stroke of a pen.

We have discussed the primary negative factor in the book. There are others, but there seems little need to fill more print space. This seems a sufficient red flag for most discerning parents.