Shane
Acceptable with guidance. Age: 12+. A Catholic review of this book for parents.
Our review
Bob is a boy on a farm in Wyoming in 1889. A quiet stranger named Shane rides in and stays to help the family. A rich rancher tries to scare the farmers off their land, and Shane stands up to him. It has fistfights and a gunfight, and it is good for kids about twelve and up. This short Western is told through the eyes of a boy who watches a good man use his strength for others. Shane wants to leave his violent past behind, and he takes it up again only to protect the family that took him in. We found no Catholic review of record or curriculum placement, so we give it with guidance. The content cells are blank because neither content log covers the book. Parents should talk about the ending, where the trouble is settled with a gun. They should also know that Bob's mother feels drawn to Shane while staying faithful to her husband.
For parents
Read aloud from about ten or eleven. Independent reading from twelve, the age the Catholic blog A Catholic Girl Reads gives. That review logs a few uses of a mild swear word, fistfights where men are badly beaten, and three deaths told without much graphic detail. Ask: why does Shane put his gun away at the start? Why does he pick it up again? What does it cost him? Talk about the difference between defending the innocent and taking revenge. Still, be clear that a gunfight is not how Christians hope to settle a wrong, and that every death is a sorrow. Ask what makes Shane strong besides his skill with a gun. His self-control and his care for Bob's family are the better answer. Wikipedia's plot summary says Bob's mother, Marian, comes to have romantic feelings for Shane while staying devoted to her husband. Nothing in the fetched sources says they act on it. Tell your child that feelings like these can come to anyone, and that Marian and Shane do right by honoring her marriage. A promise made before God is kept by what we choose, not by what we feel. Bob looks up to Shane almost as a hero without faults. Ask your child who his own heroes are and why.