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Great Children's Stories Are Not Propaganda

A big problem I have with so-called "children's stories" like "Ten Thousand Dresses" or "Heather Has Two Mommies", or even a recent one that came out in my state, "My Parents Open Carry" is that they are propaganda masquerading as children's stories. They may have been written at a child's reading level, but they are written primarily to serve adult agendas. Instead of asking the question, "what do children want to read?", they are telling children what they ought to read. Take away the message, and there really is no story.

For a story to work with me, there has to be something about the characters and what they are doing that compels me to put aside other things in favor of spending time within its pages or watching on screen. I won't waste time with a story that is boring, too confusing, or has characters and/or a plot line I just don't like. I think if I'd been subjected to a diet that consisted of books like the three mentioned above, I would not be the avid reader I am today.

Do children really care about gender identity issues, gay parents, or open carry gun rights? Do they really? If I were to go down to my public library and ask the librarians there what are the most popular and requested children's books, I doubt if any of the books I mentioned would be on the list. I've never once heard a child say, "Gee, you really ought to read 'Heather Has Two Mommies'!". But I have heard them talk about other books.

Now, not every child is going to like the same thing, but the stories I liked most as a child engaged my imagination, took me to far-away lands and different times, they had adventure, they had interesting characters that were doing interesting things. "Who Built the Dam?" was one of my favorites as was its companions, "Who Built the Bridge?" and "Who Built the Skyscraper?" I liked "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel" and "Make Way for Ducklings". I devoured everything that Marguerite Henry ever wrote. I loved fairy tales, pirate stories, "Mysterious Island", and as I got older, science fiction. I loved Jim Kjielgaard's dog stories and "My Side of the Mountain." Yes, many of these books are, by today's standards, sexist and racist, but that was not why I read them over and over. I read them because I enjoyed them. Some, like "Black Beauty", were "message stories", but they were written in a way that made you care about the story. You cared about Black Beauty and his changing fortunes and in the process learned why it was wrong to mistreat animals.

I haven't read "Heather" or "My Parents Open Carry", but if they are anything like "Ten Thousand Dresses", I don't think I am missing much. That book was such an epic fail on so many levels. I'm not even sure what its point was. To be kind to people who are different? Or, that it is ok to call yourself a girl even though you have the body of a boy, and people should just accept that? I hate to say "transgender agenda" but this book sure smells like it. It's not a story a child would choose on his or her own. It was read to the children during Sunday Service to get a point across, and I am not sure the children were totally buying it, even though they dutifully chanted "We love you, Bailey, Be Yourself." No child was going to say, "But Ms Karen, why does Bailey say I am a girl when everyone around him knows he is a boy?" No child is going to say, "that kid is messed up." Not in that situation. What they think and say in private when no adults are around is another story. Children understand about adult pressure and they know when they are free to disagree and when they must go along. I admit, I went along even though inside I had deep reservations.

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Spinning Compass
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