Terrible Children's Books (Page 2)

Sign up for Dolly Parton's (yes that Dolly Parton) Imagination Library.  They will send you a free children's book every month until your child is 4 or 5 (cannot recall).  Some friends signed us up for both of our children (4 and 11).  It's really a wonderful program.  My daughter gets excited every time a book shows up in the mail.

http://usa.imaginationlibrary.com/

I haven't run across any books that I hate yet, but one movie that I just cannot stand is The Little Mermaid - whiny teenage daughter breaks the rules and in the end Daddy gives her what she wants.  Disgusting.

PS - my boys LOVE Captain Underpants.  I don't mind them, and they still read other chapter books, too.

Similar reason I don't let my kids watch Ni Hao, Kai-Lan cartoon anymore. A character doesn't get what he/she wants and has a full-blown temper tantrum every time I've watched it... and the other characters give in and pacify. Forget it.

+ the message of change your true self for "love". Blech.

My kids are a little older - but they are really enjoying the Lightning Thief series - lots of Greek mythology and compelling reads.

I used to feel the way that both of you describe. I was the biggest hater of the Disney version of Little Mermaid you could find. I made grand pronouncements about how when I was a father of a daughter, she would be more secure than to have to change her identity to chase some boy. Why can't Triton make him into a merman? He's the king/god of the ocean!

But then I became the father of a daughter, and my take on the story has completely changed. Now, I see it as a parable of an over protective father whose provincial tyranny drives her away. He has to sacrifice himself to save her in the end. Had he not been such a fundamentalist and xenophobe, she wouldn't have so easily fallen for the witch's lies.

When we went to Disney in 2011 for my first goal race, I found myself in the Little Mermaid show with my little girl on my arm, crying like a baby. (Me not her) Whenever I hear that phrase of Ariel singing away her voice, I melt. Somewhere inside me, the vestiges of 20something hipster-me screams "dude who are you?!"

Now, I may have turned soft on that story, but I will still get on a soapbox about the horrible messages of the Lion King, which reinforces racial segregation, anti-intellectualism, and the divine right of kings.