Have you seen Bridge to Terabithia yet? It really is a great family movie. We took our kids to see it a few weeks ago, and this was easily the best film we’ve seen since The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

And no wonder; it’s produced by Walden Media, the same company behind the Narnia movies, as well as Because of Winn Dixie, Charlotte’s Webb, Amazing Grace, and others. You can read a chapter excerpt of Bridge to Terabithia here.

In a recent speech, the president of Walden Media, Michael Flaherty, addressed an audience of college students and talked about the importance of reading good books. He said:

In launching Walden Media, our greatest challenge was in identifying the stories that we wanted to bring to the screen. We did not want to waste our time making films out of “the wrong books” that Eustace Scrubbs [The Voyage of the Dawn Treader] wasted his time reading.

So rather than turn to the usual parade of agents and Hollywood producers, we launched an unusual campaign that continues to this day. We enrolled in as many educational conferences as we could find. We spoke to tens of thousands of teachers and librarians and asked them what books they most enjoyed teaching and recommending.

After seven years, the only thing that seems odd about this strategy is the fact that our company is the only one doing it. After all, who knows stories better than teachers and librarians?

And I must add to this: parents. We know what we love to read to our kids! We know what our children respond to. We know what books bring joy to our family.

If you’ve read a good book lately, why not write Walden Media and request they consider it for a movie? Get your kids to write them a letter — not a bad composition assignment, huh?

Flaherty continues in his speech (which I hope you can read in its entirety) by explaining why they’ve chosen to tackle projects that contain some frightening content (such as Terabithia, which I won’t spoil for you, if you haven’t seen it yet. But bring the tissues!) He quotes this wonderful passage from C.S. Lewis. I don’t know where this came from originally — does anyone know?

Those who say that children must not be frightened may mean two things. They may mean (1) that we must not do anything likely to give the child those haunting, disabling, pathological fears against which ordinary courage is helpless: in fact, phobias. His mind must, if possible, be kept clear of things he can’t bear to think of. Or they may mean (2) that we must try to keep out of his mind the knowledge that he is born into a world of death, violence, wounds, adventure, heroism and cowardice, good and evil.

If they mean the first I agree with them: but not if they mean the second. The second would indeed be to give children a false impression and feed them on escapism in the bad sense. There is something ludicrous in the idea of so educating a generation which is born to the…atomic bomb.

Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.

Oh, that last line: I love it!

Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage.

Are you reading books to your children that teach them about the courage needed to overcome evil? Whenever I get depressed about the state of the world, about the junk our kids must grow up with, I look to people like Michael Flaherty and Walden Media as my heroes.

One more quote from this great speech:

Today we desperately need more leaders like William Wilberforce and the Kings and Queens of Narnia who will fight to make good laws, keep the peace, save good trees from being cut down, and encourage ordinary people who want to live and let live.

I wish you a happy weekend, filled with brave knights and heroic courage!