Kirk Cameron, Trent Talbot Discuss DC Story Hour and Raising Brave Kids
Wednesday morning, The Washington Stand visited Cleveland Park Library in Washington, D.C., where Christian actor and speaker Kirk Cameron partnered with Brave Books to host a children’s story hour to promote books that encourage loving God, family, and our country. The event featured Brave Books authors, including Libs of TikTok account owner Chaya Raichik, former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, and Human Events Senior Editor Jack Posobiec reading their books out loud to a group of attentive children.
“Today, we had quite a few authors here that have written books with Brave Books publishing company,” Kirk Cameron shared with TWS. “These were books about trusting your parents, even if there are people who tell you to keep secrets from your parents — don’t do that. We had books here about love and kindness, compassion, gentleness. Then we had other books about the dangers of people who tell you that they’ll give everything to you for free, because there actually is no free ice cream, and these are explaining the dangers of communism.”
Cameron’s appearances on the Freedom Island book tour will include future stops in New York City, Scottsdale, Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco, and Seattle. During the event, Cameron praised the attendees for their bravery, citing the presence of protestors outside the library as an example of the intimidation that Christian conservative families face in our nation today.
Cameron added, “This was a great morning of families in the D.C. area, and we talked about loving God, loving our families, and loving our country. We laughed, the kids had a great time, and it was awesome, so we hope to continue making stops around the country in rural areas, urban areas, and reading these books and encouraging parents to be courageous and brave, and to create the culture they want for their kids.”
TWS also had the opportunity to speak with Trent Talbot, founder and co-CEO of Brave Books, who explained, “We’re a Christian conservative publishing company that creates great books for kids that teach pro-God, pro-American values. Our vision for Brave is that when Christian conservative parents, when their kids hit three to five years old, they subscribe to our book of the month club, and they get a book every single month that’s in our world that we created, Freedom Island — it’s symbolic of America. We want to be the brand of children’s content that parents can trust, because there’s a lot of stuff out there which you’re probably well aware of that they can’t trust, so they feel like they have to read every book and watch every show, and that’s not sustainable, it’s not right. Parents should be able to have a brand that they can trust with their kids’ imagination. It’s a precious thing.”
Talbot continued, “To us, it’s all about creating character, helping build strong character, build a foundation of truth that they can navigate the world through, help them discern what’s right versus wrong. So we cover some of the topics that are out there in culture, things like gender reality and the sanctity of life, hard work, importance of family, all these things in a very family-friendly, fun way. To us, if they know truth, then they’ll be able to stand firm in that and be able to make better decisions.”
When TWS asked Cameron what advice he would give to parents as they seek to raise brave kids in a culture embroiled in progressive narratives, he asserted, “It actually gets worse than this. Progressivism will endeavor to do just that: continue to progress. Progressives don’t want to meet others at the 50-yard line. They want to go all the way down the field and crush the opposition. This actually isn’t a progressive idea — it’s a regressive idea. The United States of America is built on principles that actually bring liberty and blessing and protection for all people — people of faith, yes, but even people who don’t have faith can enjoy living here rather than other places that aren’t built on these Judeo-Christian principles.”
Cameron concluded, “So, I would say, parents: freedom is a rare and precious gift, and it must be celebrated, it must be lived out, and it must be treasured, and only then will you fight for it and defend it. And that’s gonna take bravery and courage. That’s what it took [of] our Founding Fathers and Mothers in order to be able to give that to us as their legacy, and it’s what will be required of us to give to our kids. So be strong and be courageous — have faith in God and love one another. Work together toward honorable goals and we will win.”
