Treasures of the Snow: Why Morals Are Necessary in Children’s Literature When Patricia St. John wrote Treasures of the Snow in the nineteen-fifties, she followed what she knew about writing and life and instilled morals and life lessons throughout the work. All of her books, but especially Treasures of the Snow, are all-important to children’s literature because they provide deep life lessons about subjects like love, hatred, death, disability, repentance, self-sacrifice, forgiveness and reconciliation that need to be taught to children (Treasures). These perplexing themes included in Treasures of the Snow need to be introduced to young people because adults are increasingly less inclined to pick up a book once they finish their highest level of education, whether that be high school or graduate studies.
Before one
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Some of these include death, as in Treasures of the Snow Annette’s mother dies within the first few pages (Treasures). Serious illness is also present as Annette’s litter brother, Dani, has an incident with a neighbor boy, Lucien, that causes him to break a leg. Patricia St. John broaches the subject of death carefully, using indirect and age-appropriate wording such as “eyes closed” and “voice trailed away” (Treasures 12). Even the malicious intent Annette feels toward Lucien is an example of hatred and ill will that can be turned into a quick message on being kind. Some of these topics do not often come up between a parent and child unless the need arises, and the lack of exposure to children can lead to problems in social behavior and in grasping difficult topics like what true forgiveness means. Children learn by reading and watching those around them, so because parents would most likely shield their children from these depressing moments in life, its presence in their literature needs to be increased to