In Grandma's Attic and Treasures From Grandma

“What do you think of the Grandma’s Attic Series?” This is a frequently asked question. Since it has been many years since we have looked at a book from this series, and we could not trust our memories to recall specifics with regard to their merit, we reread a couple of these books to refamiliarize ourselves with them.

The first book, In Grandma’s Attic, proved to be very enjoyable reading for grandparents! However, it is difficult to imagine a child ever enjoying the book as much as an adult, who can read it looking back and understanding all the learning processes and foibles connected with childhood. The adult identifies with the parenting aspects of rearing children, some of which are quite humorous. In Grandma’s Attic takes the reader back over 100 years to a farm in northern Michigan, where the grandma (Mabel) recounts many stories from her childhood. Most of the stories in the first book are acceptable, but a few are questionable.

One problem, which is nearly always to be expected with a best seller like In Grandma’s Attic, is that sequels always follow. Since one’s first work is usually the embodiment of great effort and burden, it is difficult to continue in an upward direction, so, as a rule, a series usually deteriorates. This series is no exception. Treasures from Grandma is the fourth book in the series. The girls are no longer little but have entered their teens. Sadly, nearly all of the stories in this book are quite disappointing. Mabel, does not get along with her brothers, and is becoming quite adept at deceitfulness. She disobeys whenever she feels the need, and lies when she feels it is necessary. She and her friend even visit a fortune teller.

It was sad to find a subtle, yet vindictive, feminist attack on marriage on page 84 as Mabel responds to her friend’s question on getting married someday.

“No, no,” I interrupted her. “I’ve been somebody’s daughter this far in my life, and I don’t want to be somebody’s wife the rest of it. I want to be successful on my own. I’d like to have a really responsible place in life.”

As we see it, in this passage the author can only be trying to convince the reader that giving one’s life in rearing, training and providing for those precious ones of the next generation is irresponsible, while the self-serving attitude of feeding one’s pride on one’s accomplishments is the epitome of responsibility. As any conscious adult knows, a young, innocent reader is likely to swallow such an innocently dropped line with the hook and sinker.

One very disheartening thing throughout these books is that the parents almost never deal with lying, disobedience or any sort of sin in general. If and when they ever do find out about such behavior, they simply say something to the effect of, “Oh, well. I hope you learned your lesson.” However, there was never any attempt to portray a lesson to the reader.

Regarding the incident of the fortune teller, there are no references to the evil of visiting a fortune teller, or to any of the Bible’s warnings against such things. On occasions when lies are found out or misdeeds are discovered, there seems to be a total lack of any real repentance, awareness of sin, understanding of the evil, or depiction of disobedience as sin. These books are promoted as Christian, but we were unable to find anything truly Christian in them. Nor did we find the author or the story taking a Christian stance on any of the numbers of unchristian influences and concepts to which the reader is exposed.

We read books #1 and #4 to get a general feel for the series. The series began in a delightful place, but the path twisted and turned, and wound up at a destination where we would not send our children. We also would not recommend these books because they contain too many creative evils. They are a great way for children to learn new and interesting ways to be and do things that responsible parents would not want to encourage.

As parents, we felt as we read these books that our hearts wanted to cry out to Mabel’s parents and say, “No. Don’t let that pass. Do something. Teach your child that evil is wrong. Don’t make light of the sin.” If we allow sin, it will only grow and cause pain, and, of course, there is always the matter of eternity.