As the long COVID winter still stretches out before us, and the political landscape stirs unrest in our souls, it can feel like a remarkable challenge to keep our children occupied with valuable activities. In “How Not to Read Cheesy Books with Your Quarantined Kids,” authors and judges for the CT Book Awards Sarah Arthur and Erin F. Wasinger encourage parents to think on what makes a book good and how they can present good books to their children in this uniquely challenging season.

“Reading widely is especially crucial during a global pandemic, when nearly every community around the world is experiencing some version of the same isolating crisis,” they write. “For communities that regularly sit on the edge of collapse, the stakes are much higher—but we may fail to see those communities the way God does without a window into their perspective. Literature opens the shutters, raises the blinds.”

Books—like anything else—can’t answer all of our problems. But they may enter into a moment that feels dark, for parents and children alike, and shed a ray of light.