The issue with children's literature not referencing religious sources
Sasan Nategh, author of children and teenagers’ book, believes that the Holy Quran, written sources and religious practices are good sources to increase the needed acknowledge for children and teenagers’ books’ author, however they are neglectful of it.
According to him, conveying religious concepts can be much more beneficial when it’s done through literature.
“One of the topics that hasn't received as much attention as it ought to is the themes of the month of Muharram. More works are produced in the fields of revolution and holy defense than there are in the field of religion. Then again, the memories of soldiers from the holy defense cover the majority of the topics related to Muharram days,” he said.
He went on to say that how a child can relate to a book is determined by the impact of its literature. Transferring religious ideas to children is both challenging and simple; simplicity comes from the fact that we all experience these occasions on a yearly basis, which increases our knowledge of them and makes it easier for us to explain them. On the other hand, it's challenging because doing so involves ensuring that kids understand these ideas and that they pay attention to their surroundings.
“Unfortunately, as an audience, I have not read a book that has fully expressed all the concepts related to this historical event, and frequently the existing works have only dealt with parts of this event, even though it is simple to achieve the proper education for children and teenagers by producing appropriate books about it,” Nategh added.
This author also mentioned that the Qur'an is one of our trustworthy sources for religious stories, but these sources have not been extensively used in published works.
Sasan Nategh also draws attention to the developmental stage of children, noting that while young children deal with stories that are the result of their imagination, teenagers deal with stories and read those stories with the mental image that their early experiences with stories gave them. In fact, we can actually communicate ideas to them much more effectively in adolescence and later, whereas in childhood, we only attempt to do so through the use of stories.
“Working with children is much more difficult and delicate than working with adults because if we are not careful, what they learn may be contaminated with superstitions and deceptive ideas,” he added.