Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Ah, the good old days...

...you know, the days that we adults are lucky to have survived, what with the politically incorrect story books and unsanitized hands and walking to school. I'm not going to take this all the way to the suggestion that kids should learn how to safely use handguns and only play in traffic on one-way streets, but I found myself shaking my head today.

My intention with this post was to show you a couple of books that Elle LOVES right now. Going to visit other houses means a wealth of new reading material, and most of the stuff at GrammaPapa's house in Toronto is circa 1980, when dada and his brother Timbot were toddlers. There's lots of old school sexism and racism in these classics, peppered with the odd bit of animal cruelty, but for the most part it's only glaringly obvious to the overanalytical parent types who choose to find offense where a child never would.

This book has been read at least thirty times in the last week, and E can't get enough of it:



I admit, every time I read it I feel bad for the poor guy, and at first I wondered if it would upset my sensitive little monster. But I did what I think was the wise thing to do (it doesn't happen often, so it bears announcing when I manage it), and read the book to her without giving my opinions about it, and it was a big hit. And why not? It rhymes, there's a cute dog in it and it has a happy ending. Of course, there's always someone on the other side of the fence, as I witnessed when I went looking for a picture to post. Check this out. Woah. Not to be too insensitive, but...easy there, activist. Of course, then I checked out the title of the blog and realized that if you feel that you require a children's literary resource specifically tailored to your vegetarian/vegan lifestyle, then I suppose you would be concerned about what happened to the calf of the cow in the book who is being milked. To each his own, I suppose.

As for the other book that E can't put down, even going so far as to sleep with it last night, we have a book that was given to J when he was four, and revealed an eerie significance.



Now, I couldn't find any overtly offensive material in here, apart from the horribly demeaning and oppressive nature of the stay-at-home mom with 32 children (keep in mind that they're rabbits, people). But I was delighted to learn that the doctor's name is Dr. Doctor, just like dada who has an MD and a PhD! You have to wonder if Richard Scarry started it all. Scarry stuff, indeed.

Anyhoo, that's all for the rant today. Please read this, and just about all of my posts, as intended with a tablespoon or two of sarcasm and a hint of a smile.

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