To the Editor:

Author Lois Lowry’s lecture to the students at Trumbull College was very revealing on two counts.

Yes, “Literature can change children’s lives” for good or bad. Volumes of inappropriate and questionable literature are being exposed to defile and pollute the young and impressionable minds and the Good Book, the Bible, is forbidden. This is the reason we have crime and aggressive behavior in the halls of our public schools and institutions, such as Columbine High and Viginia Tech. Note who was attracted to Lowry’s book, “the rowdiest boy in the class”.

Again, I quote her saying “Reading positive books (children) learn nothing.” That is absolutely false.

On the contrary, children at a formative stage, need books that show proper response to anger, hatred, jealousy and other highly charged emotions: that honesty pays and that “kindness lives on forever”, to quote Charles Dickens. “Positive books” do aid a child’s development and they later prove assets to a civilized society.

Alice Leishman

Nov. 12

Leishman is a mother and educator in New Haven.