"Well-meaning parents and editors, intent on protecting kiddos’ eggshell-fragile psyches, have increasingly narrowed children’s literary diets to gauzy, watercolored morality plays and anodyne tales of suffocatingly relentless positivity. But kids aren’t fragile; they’re perceptive and adaptable—and shielding them from ambiguity doesn’t make them safer—it just delays their ability to process it."
Yes! This is a huge pet peeve of mine. 90% of the books prominently displayed in the children's section of our library are the "watercolored morality plays" you speak of. And you wanna know something? They are excruciatingly boring. A perfect way to destroy a child's interest in reading and also in understanding whatever moral lesson the book is trying to bludgeon them with.
You are a dad not the pope! What kind of parent isn't fallible? Thanks for sharing this amazing story.
"Well-meaning parents and editors, intent on protecting kiddos’ eggshell-fragile psyches, have increasingly narrowed children’s literary diets to gauzy, watercolored morality plays and anodyne tales of suffocatingly relentless positivity. But kids aren’t fragile; they’re perceptive and adaptable—and shielding them from ambiguity doesn’t make them safer—it just delays their ability to process it."
Yes! This is a huge pet peeve of mine. 90% of the books prominently displayed in the children's section of our library are the "watercolored morality plays" you speak of. And you wanna know something? They are excruciatingly boring. A perfect way to destroy a child's interest in reading and also in understanding whatever moral lesson the book is trying to bludgeon them with.
Boring indeed! And LOL @ “bludgeon”! 😆 The world needs more Edward Gorey. Thanks Christine!
I know what I’ll be reading (again) later today! Xo LAL
Ideally while wearing a floppy felt hat!