Annoying children's books--rant

[ArwenA]

I just had to register my disgust at a Christmas book my daughter found at the library. It's called A New Improved Santa. Starts off fine: Santa realizes that he's getting a bit portly and resolves to "become a new, improved Santa." He starts off eating salads, bran, carrots, rice cakes and even tofu (!). Actual tofu is pictured on the table in their home! Santa becomes slim and healthy through diet and exercise, then goes on to pump up and choose some exciting new hairstyles and modern clothing choices. It's really cool (except when he tries the leather look).

THEN the annoying part begins, where the children are frightened by the "new" Santa and he realizes the error of his ways. To fatten up by Christmas, Mrs. Claus, who has been going along with Santa's zaniness all along with a kindly, patient, knowing smile, is ready for him with a "Eggnog Power Smoothie." It goes downhill from there, as he pigs out on (in one sitting) a steak as big as his head, cakes, pies, fries, shakes, and an entire roast turkey. Newly plump (and sporting his old, elevated blood cholesterol levels I'm sure), he dons the same old, same old and goes off to do his thing on X-mas eve. Then the clincher, as Santa tells his wife, "I'm the same old Santa," and she counters with, "Oh no you're not...you're smarter."

If this had not been a library book, I would have hurled it across the room at this point. My daughter agreed. Why couldn't he stay the same old Santa clothing wise and just be healthier and set a good example for children the world 'round?

And then there's this book that showed up in a bunch of second-hand purchases, "The ABC's of Lunch," which includes the following nutritional heresies:
Ee Eating eggs just can't be beat!
Ff Fresh, fried fish with fishy smell
Hh Hot dogs, hamburgs, ham and more!
Ii Ice cream! I scream, I want more!" (The cute cartoon dog already has THREE scoops.)
Mm Macaroni, if you please, Macaroni, major cheese.
V for vegetables and veal, very good for every meal. (Veal for every meal, now THAT'S a treat.)

BLEAH!

On the plus side, we did find a very good book called "Eating the Alphabet" by Lois Ehlert. This features 100% fruits and veggies and has beautiful art. Highly recommended for the younger set!

That's all for now. Here's to new, improved children's books and healthier kids!

[sophie]

Ohhh, that's so disgusting! The Santa one makes my skin crawl...and the ABC one, well it should be called the ABC of Death and Disease. Shudder.
I always have to check library books now, there have been so many times I've been reading a library book to my children and suddenly have been hit in the face with something offensive.

[Christa]

My older daughter, who is learning to read, keeps getting easy reader books sent home from school to practice with me. Most of them are fine, but she came home with one entitled "I like..." the other day. It starts off with "I like chicken. I like hamburgers. I like icecream." etc., etc. Every page lists an unhealthy non-vegie food. The final page says "I don't like spinach. Yuck!"

Given that my daughter's teacher knows that Angelina is vegetarian & pretty sensitive to animals, I was a bit upset. Angelina's response was that it was a very bad diet & she didn't like people eating her animal friends. She eventually decided to write her own version of the book & bring that back to read to the teacher instead of the original. Angelina's version went like: "I do not eat chicken! I do not eat hamburgers!... I do eat spinach. Yum!"

[vegma]

Christa, I love your daughter's conviction ... and what a great idea! Congratulations to her:)

[duckie1978]

What was her teacher's resonse to making her own book? Most teachers would *love* the initiative that she took. I know I do.

[sophie]

My 7 year old son brought home his reader and homework one night, and had to write out, with illustrations, how the people in the book caught, gutted, cooked and ate a certain kind of fish. I just wrote a note in his homework book saying "please excuse Jasper from this homework"- his teacher knows he's vegan and she was fine with it, but I really was annoyed that she gave him that homework in the first place.

[duckie1978]

That is kind of violent to have children writing about!! I am sure the teacher either forgot or just thought that it was a picture so what is the harm. I would touch base with her about this and find out if there are anymore in his reader like that. If there are you can make an alternative assignment for him to do.

[alexis]

EW.....'I like chicken. I like hamburgers. I like ice-cream'??? Are they trying to teach kids bad eating habits or what?? Anyway who teaches kids to start reading with all these crap??? My cousin's starting grade school and her textbooks have stuff like fairytales, colors and a really cool picture of fushcia asparagus... love that one...:D

[ArwenA]

Color me paranoid, but those two readers make me wonder how much influence the meat and dairy industries have on what books are published and chosen for schools! They do donate nutritional "educational" materials which lie to kids, after all!

And is anyone else bothered when humanoid animal characters are depicted in books eating other animals? That seems so strange and hypocritical.

Christa, I think it's great how your daughter creatively tackled that assignment. Yum spinach!

P.S. This is non-book related, but we saw the movie "Gordy" last night, about a talking pig who saves a boy, then wants to find his own family (who have been sent "up north" where no pig returns from). It's really hokey and has terrible acting, but has some great themes. The boy and pig inherit a business empire and re-do all their food products to be healthy and natural, and Gordy saves his family from the "fattening grounds." The whole animal industry is depicted from the pig's point of view as being horrible and scary, and the message to kids is to cherish life. Despite the poor quality of the film overall, my daughter really enjoyed it (kids don't notice bad acting). We were cheering when the pig and boy tell the company lacky to change all the sugary products to natural, healthy ones (herbal tea, whole grain cereals, etc.).

[annie7]

And is anyone else bothered when humanoid animal characters are depicted in books eating other animals? That seems so strange and hypocritical.
Exactly! What about the "Chick Fil A" restaurant billboard.... with the cow eating a chicken patty sandwhich and smiling because hamburger's not on the menu? That grosses me out.

[sophie]

Speaking of vegan-friendly movies....My kids recently watched the original 'Dr Dolittle' (the really old one starring Rex Harrison) and my daughter came running out yelling "DR DOLITTLE IS A VEGAN!!!!!"Turns out he gets offered meat and refuses, and then gives a big animal rights speech! Yeah!

[Christa]

Actually Angelina's teacher just didn't have her read anything at all when she came back w/ her own version of the "I like" book. She just gave her a different book. Oh well, it can't hurt to try.

[alexis]

Sheesh, guess fee speech isn't so free after all...

[sarahrose]

I remember when the movie 'chicken run' came out and Mc. Donalds was trying to market from it by putting up billboards and commercials that said "save a chicken, eat beef" . I could not believe that it wasn't a joke! One trick I learned (in reference to the annoying pro meat books) is to change it as I'm reading to my daughter-who is only four, so can't read for herself. For instance " this little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home, this little piggy ate tofu, and this little piggy had none.....ect,ect. I am lucky, however. My daughter's pre-school teacher is very veg friendly- at thanksgiving they put up a poster in the dining room of a turkey wearing one of those nose and glasses disguises with a shirt that said "nope, no turkeys here", and she read the kids "t'was the night before thanksgiving" and "a turkey for thanksgiving", both of which I think are sold on this site. I am very, very, lucky.......:D

[alexis]

I saw a wondeful book the other ay...it's called "the Giant's Stew" basically about a giant making a stew in the forest and it gets all the animals scared of him because they think he is going to cook them, but then later the giant invites the animals to join him for his stew(Carrot stew..hah) and the animals ask "You mean you aren't going to eat us?" and the giant laughs and tell them he doesn't eat animals...it's so nice and i wanted to buy it but it would be kind of pointless...just sitting around with ni kid to give it to...oh well...nice that such a book is out there somewhere....

[renee]

have you ever tried to find an animal friendly nursery rhyme book? some of the rhymes are so violent and scary. animals eating other species of animals is particularily disgusting. a friend of ours loaned us a nursery rhyme book from when she was little and we only read certain rhymes and edited others. my daughter loves the book so much, and has taught herself so many of the rhymes, that i wanted to get her one for christmas. i looked at ten to fifteen books before choosing the least offensive one. and in our new one, instead of the old lady who lives in the shoe giving her children broth without any bread and spanking them all and sending them to bed, she gives them all plenty of bread and kisses them sweetly and sends them to bed.