Ok.. hrm… I like Lemony Snicket. I had actually started reading those books because it’s like, FOR ONCE there are children’s books that aren’t all syrupy happy sweet. And I wish they had his series of books when I was a kid. Instead, I ended up reading horror stories.

Anne-Marie, I have a huge extended family. My mom was 3rd child of 10 kids. Many of her siblings have large families. She was the only one to have an only child, me. Anyway… we joke around about how the only reason any of us have children is to fetch the remote and get us a beer. ha! Yes, the little ones are used well to fetch.

You’ll be happy to know that a lot of children I teach get thoroughly peeved by this overprotection and the overall Disneyfication of the things they want to read. Such moves are often greeted by big eyerolls, much like their parents’ over-protectiveness in general. They resent it, big time, and aren’t even close to the innocent lambs their parents like to think they are. I often think, to paraphrase the Who, the kids are alright- it’s their parents who need a clue.

And finally, I thought of you while reading the Globe & Mail this morning- Karen Von Hahn had a fairly amusing piece where she criticised Maier’s piece about regretting having children- tongue-in-cheek of course. She offered up the real reason people have kids- to program the DVD/VCR and other technologies older adults can’t figure out. I guess working the farm has been replaced by working the remotes.

i wouldnt have been surprised if it wasnt a real organisation, but it is one made by the makers of lemony snickert books. everyone was fooled several papers, which shows the really disturbing sign of the times

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/the_happy_endings_foundation/

and there has been harry potter book burnings already. so only a small step, a frighteningly small step to it

This just made me sick… :O [bleah!]

What’s next, indeed. The next step could be no sad music allowed; only happy, good feeling music! If that happens, you’ll see me on the grassy knoll, loading the rounds! No one messes with my music!!

I say let them burn the books anyways… I’m being sarcastic in saying that, but think of all the CO2 released into the atmosphere, harming out planet more for the future of the children.

Ok, rant done…

In a time when we need to be encouraging children to read they are arguably putting up barriers to literature.

In a time when there is more negativity and violence in the world, instead of spending time organising book burnings, they could help their children cope with life by reading age appropriate books with parental guidance / discussions showing that life isn’t always fair and rosey.

In a time when seemingly more and more people have no respect for the property of others (graffiti, theft, vandalism, etc) they are showing it’s perfectly ok to burn something as precious, beautiful and powerful as the written word.

Harrumph!