What is it with weird library books?
Well, you'd think that going and picking out a few books to read to my 3 year-old would be a rather easy process, and that the children's section of the library would have lots of stories about butterflies and rainbows. Well, I'm sure there are the butterfly and rainbow stories, but here's what else we've found (and this is not limited to the local library - the first was at a California library):
1. Starts out in beautiful rainforest, animals are scared and running away. What could it be? Oh-its the evil logger with a bulldozer. Scared animals. Oh good - a flood is coming, which then KILLS the logger (picture included of bulldozer going off a cliff). Animals rejoice.
2. Little boy wants to play with older kids. He is excluded because he's too little. He goes inside and draws a bear on a blackboard, which then comes to life. All the kids want to play with the bear and he won't let them. Next, little boy is inside drawing all the older boys on the blackboard. Older boys are outside window, asking younger boy and bear to join them on a fishing trip. Little boy replies - maybe after his lunch. Switch to inside - older boys are gone from the blackboard. All that remains are drawings of their hats, scarves, and the boy is wiping the bear's mouth! The bear ATE the older boys! And this is cute and clever??!
3. This one wasn't so disturbing, but a little deep for a 3 year-old. Nazi Germany, Jewish girl pretending to be Polish, sneaking food to Jewish friends. Use cats to distract dogs that sniff out food. Are cats eaten in the process? Probably!
Anyways, I'm surprised by the first two in particular. These authors have issues!
4 Comments:
I've come across some pretty creepy/crazy/mature themes in the library, too. Not as bad as the first two, though. Man! What were those publishers thinking? Hmm, this will make a great kids book!
wierd. I can't recall any particular ones lately, except one with lots of baby photos that, once home, we noticed it was all about how babies need pacifiers. no other point.
Highly disturbing!
Unfortunately, the sentiment in the first book is infiltrating our schools, the media, and public thought. It is becoming acceptable.
When one of my colleagues wrote an article calling for a balance in resource use versus environmental protection, he got an acidic email denouncing his insensitivity and moral decay and declaring he was not "worth the air he breathed."
When I argued the Rapanos case, asking the Supreme Court to determine if the federal government had exceeded its authority in regulating remote wetlands, I received multiple death threats.
Once again, we see the importance of the family in giving our children a sense of proportion.
Thats terrible! I've run into some weird books too. I can't remember the name, but there was one about a really fat cat, and it turns out that the cat had eaten all these people and things, and someone needed to cut open the cats belly to get them out. It was really gross.
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