Books You Loved as a Child But Don't Want for Your Kids

[Anonymous]

As if anyone would bother to distinguish a Dutch person from a Hungarian person, but don’t dare mix up Asians!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband hates Rainbow Fish because he thinks it's about socialism.

That story is just creepy. If you look different you should give the bullies your body parts. What??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband hates Rainbow Fish because he thinks it's about socialism.

Oh, yes, it is! My mom thinks the same thing. No one is allowed to have something that makes them stand out as different in the Rainbow Fish world.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Tikki tikki Tembo. Totally racist

I haven’t read this since I was a kid- what is wrong with it?

Basically it's a story to "explain" why Chinese kids now have monosyllabic names like "Chang" because the kid who had the long name ("Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sa Rembo Pep Beri Puchi Peri Peri Pembo"--or something crazy long and nonsensical, but fun for kids to try to memorize b/c it repeats throughout the story,,,which is basically why kids liked it!) fell into a well and the brother who tried to go get help took too long because he kept having to get through saying his name to try to get someone to come and save him.

And at the end of the book it's like "so this is why Chinese kids have short names" as like the moral of the story. (Probably whoever wrote it wasn't trying to be racist. It just as easily could have been a stupid story that ended with "and that's why tigers have stripes"--but that wouldn't go along with the name thing and making it repetitive and all that.) In the end, it just comes off sounding super racist.

I guess to some people. To me, it reads like a folk tale, which, like most folk tales, is nonsensical and very appealing to young children. (And, in fact, Tikki Tikki Tembo it is a retelling of an old story, although the origins of the story are unclear.)

Stories about why tigers have stripes are not "stupid" stories. They are the stories humans have told throughout history.

My kids LOVED the book Tikki Tikki Tembo. They are teens now, and they don't think Chinese naming customs center around the experiences of a boy who fell down a well any more than they think that tigers got their stripes because somebody spilled paint on them (though we read stories like that when they were little, too).

This is what I thought until my Asian spouse and I had a conversation about why it’s racist and offensive. It’s a tale made up by white people to explain something about another culture. It’s insensitive and racist. It’s akin to a story about a white kid getting burned over and over and saying ‘and this is why they are black’.

Although the origins of the story seem to be murky, it is a retelling of a folk tale. It's not a made up tale by white people.

I’ll rephrase. It’s a white author retelling a Japanese folktale as Chinese (hey, I have Wikipedia, too!). And a white illustrator who created entirely inaccurate images. And text that mocks how Asian languages sound to those that don’t speak them. It’s basically ‘Chinese, Japanese, who cares?’ And ‘all those Asian words sound like gibberish anyway, let’s just make up what the meaning of some super Chinese words ‘Chang’ and throw in some not even Chinese but gibberish enough words ‘tikki tikki tembo’ and give it to little white kids to read. We will all feel proud for learning about exotic cultures!’

You seriously don’t see how it’s culturally insensitive and racist? I’d expect as much in the 1960’s, but not today.

Asian here.

Not offended by it.

Not offended by white (or brown) people retelling old folk stories from other cultures. All that matter is that they are good writers, and in the case of children's books, be able to write in a way that the words are melodious when being read out loud.

Sharing folktales are good, even if the writer is not from that background.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You all must live in bubbles.

I didn’t care what my kids read bc we TALK about the ugly parts of life.

I think the point is that some of these books we read at a young age now require a kid to be old enough to understand what you are talking about when you talk about the ugly parts of life. When we were young, we just read them and no one told us they were ugly.

[Anonymous]

The Great Brain series. I loved those books, but now they require an appreciation of racial and culteral history which bumps them up an age group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Great Brain series. I loved those books, but now they require an appreciation of racial and culteral history which bumps them up an age group.

Love those books too—I’m trying to think of examples of concerns. I don’t remeber any non-whites in the books (about Utah around 1900). There’s discussion of how the Lutherans and the Mormons generally kept separate, with the few Catholics (which the author was) sort of floating between. There’s a chapter or too about a Jewish traveling salesman who dies because none of the other religious groups really bother to make sure he’s okay, which I think the author meant as an allegory for the holocaust (as I think it was written in the 40s). I haven’t re-read all of them, though—are there specific things you find concerning? My kids have been re-reading them and I’d like to discuss them if they are problematic.
What’s most notable about those books is the frequency of fist fights among the boys—that’s how they settled everything!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband hates Rainbow Fish because he thinks it's about socialism.

Oh, yes, it is! My mom thinks the same thing. No one is allowed to have something that makes them stand out as different in the Rainbow Fish world.

What? Socialism is health care for all and free education.....like the US military. Rainbow fish is just odd in terms of protecting body integrity. Like if you have hair that everyone loves, do you cut locks of it for everyone? It is super creepy.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:My husband hates Rainbow Fish because he thinks it's about socialism.

Oh, yes, it is! My mom thinks the same thing. No one is allowed to have something that makes them stand out as different in the Rainbow Fish world.

What? Socialism is health care for all and free education.....like the US military. Rainbow fish is just odd in terms of protecting body integrity. Like if you have hair that everyone loves, do you cut locks of it for everyone? It is super creepy.

I think they are confusing socialism and communism.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:My husband hates Rainbow Fish because he thinks it's about socialism.

Oh, yes, it is! My mom thinks the same thing. No one is allowed to have something that makes them stand out as different in the Rainbow Fish world.

What? Socialism is health care for all and free education.....like the US military. Rainbow fish is just odd in terms of protecting body integrity. Like if you have hair that everyone loves, do you cut locks of it for everyone? It is super creepy.

I think they are confusing socialism and communism.

Whatever it is, it is about making yourself the same as everyone else in order to have friends. It is about not standing out as an individual, not being different because people may not like you if you have something that they perceive as better than what they have. If you are smart or have a talent in some area, you better hide that away so you don't make other people feel bad and thus, dislike you.


It is a sad message to give our children.