Reply to Appropriate books for a preschooler reading at 6th grade reading level

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
No on Secret Garden, which appears on quite a few lists of racist children's literature.  Mary spends quite a bit of time complaining about the sub-human Indian savages.  [/quote]

[b]Most books older than a few years are on that list, if they're not already on the sexist transphobic one. It's an excellent way to keep people out of the used market.[/b]

For what it's worth, Mary is presented explicitly as not being someone to emulate.

"[Mary's mother] had not wanted a little girl at all, and when Mary was born she handed her over to the care of an Ayah, who was made to understand that if she wished to please the Mem Sahib she must keep the child out of sight as much as possible. So when she was a sickly, fretful, ugly little baby she was kept out of the way, and when she became a sickly, fretful, toddling thing she was kept out of the way also. She never remembered seeing familiarly anything but the dark faces of her Ayah and the other native servants, and as they always obeyed her and gave her her own way in everything, because the Mem Sahib would be angry if she was disturbed by her crying, by the time she was six years old she was as tyrannical and selfish a little pig as ever lived."
[/quote]

Imagine reading that to your child of color and what they will think about themselves when they read that.  I don't have to imagine it, because I started reading the book to my child who is not white and found myself having to cut out passages from it and then putting it down in disgust. [/quote]

And no, most books "older than a few years" are NOT on the list of racist literature.  I read my child tons of older books, and most of them are fine.  [/quote]

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