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][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][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."
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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]

I don't have white children, but I also don't have such self-introspective sensitive ones. You have my deepest sympathies; it must be hard. [/quote]

I feel sorry for your children that neither they nor you don't see  a problem with children's literature referring to people with dark skin as less than human.  [/quote]

+1. PP is a typical white mom[/quote]
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^ Oops!  I messed up the quote.  Here you can see what I’m posting vs. quoting:

I think The Secret Garden is a beautiful book that can be shared to children when they’re old enough to understand historical context.  There is also content that might be disturbing for a preschooler (her parents are dead, the cries in the night from the boy concerned over his hump - and his mother’s dead too, the father’s coldness, etc).  I think it’s too intense for a preschooler, and I think they’d enjoy and appreciate it more when they’re a little older.  I think it’s probably really good for a 3rd-5th grader.[/quote]

It's been banned in many schools for racist language and viewpoints.  But if your child is white, perhaps it won't strike them as that awful (which is sad in and of itself). [/quote]

DP.  As the white mother of black and Latina children I take your point ... and you are missing hers.

There is a teachable moment when encountering books such as you describe and it isn't good to completely ignore them like they were never written.  After all, when you're listening to music, do you immediately turn off your stream when Michael Jackson comes on?  I abhor his pedophiliac acts yet I understand why his music is still listened to by many.  So, too, with books like [i]The Secret Garden[/i] or books by Mark Twain or and a host of others.  They were written at a time when views were different, and WRONG.  We can read them for their literary value while also taking the time to explain the immoral, unethical, troublesome and/or inappropriate content.

For our part, my husband and I don't want our kids growing up in a world where they don't understand other perspectives.  Our kids need to know what's out there, what they're up against and the (sometimes) hidden value systems of other people.  Introducing abhorrent concepts through reading is, imo, a good way to broach these difficult concepts and for us as parents to frame the content in a way acceptable to us that has value to our children.[/quote]

As a person of color, I believe you are missing my point.  I would turn off Michael Jackson’s music if he were singing about pedophelia.  And I don’t need to expose my non-white children to literature that refers to people of color as subhuman savages.  There’s plenty of other better children’s literature out there that they can read. [/quote]

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