When I first saw the title of Nancy Carlson's book, I immediately likened it to a "don't kill yourself" book for kids. I realize that's incredibly morbid and I'm not even sure why I did it. I guess it was adult perspective imposing. The book turned out to be pretty standard. Carlson lists a number of things a kid could be afraid of (with visual accompaniments) and then explains why they shouldn't be afraid (characters from original visuals shown in a less scary light). I had a HUGE problem with some of the things she listed which completely turned me off from the book until I got to the very last page before the end papers. In her list of scary things Carlson includes thunderstorms, dogs, roller coasters, the news, public speaking, spiders and insects, clowns, shadows, and PEOPLE WHO LOOK DIFFERENT FROM YOU. I guess it just doesn't often occur to me that there are still children out there with so little exposure (such brainwashing) that something like that would be a real fear. So of course I spent the remainder of the book highly offended until I came to that last page which read: This book was written on September 12, 2001. And then it all made sense. Perhaps I'm just being emotional, and maybe this subject is no longer so immediately relevant to little kids today, but that page forced me to put myself in the head of a child after such a traumatic experience and made me see Carlson's statements in another light.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
hide under your covers and never come out
When I first saw the title of Nancy Carlson's book, I immediately likened it to a "don't kill yourself" book for kids. I realize that's incredibly morbid and I'm not even sure why I did it. I guess it was adult perspective imposing. The book turned out to be pretty standard. Carlson lists a number of things a kid could be afraid of (with visual accompaniments) and then explains why they shouldn't be afraid (characters from original visuals shown in a less scary light). I had a HUGE problem with some of the things she listed which completely turned me off from the book until I got to the very last page before the end papers. In her list of scary things Carlson includes thunderstorms, dogs, roller coasters, the news, public speaking, spiders and insects, clowns, shadows, and PEOPLE WHO LOOK DIFFERENT FROM YOU. I guess it just doesn't often occur to me that there are still children out there with so little exposure (such brainwashing) that something like that would be a real fear. So of course I spent the remainder of the book highly offended until I came to that last page which read: This book was written on September 12, 2001. And then it all made sense. Perhaps I'm just being emotional, and maybe this subject is no longer so immediately relevant to little kids today, but that page forced me to put myself in the head of a child after such a traumatic experience and made me see Carlson's statements in another light.
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That's awful--I can see the 9/11 connection but in many ways that makes me think that it's even worse. I really dislike didactic texts that tell children how life "should" be, and unfortunately there are too many of them. Further, your point about "people who look different from you" is about the worst message that I can imagine sending. I'm trying not to imagine a parent/teacher saying to a child "...and what are we afraid of???" geez.
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