"What do you have," I asked the librarian, "for a three year old who is asking a lot of questions about death?"
She handed me this book.
It is wonderfully kind and gentle in dealing with the death of Barney the cat, and how the family (but particularly the little boy) deals with Barney's death.
It is wonderfully kind and gentle in dealing with the death of Barney the cat, and how the family (but particularly the little boy) deals with Barney's death.Thanks, Judith Viorst!
Jim read it to Willa first, while I nursed Henry.
I hope Judith doesn't get mad because I'm posting the innards of her book on my little blog.
Cat angels made me giggle a little.
Jim raised an eyebrow and peeked under the second set of can angels, to reveal...
... a far deeper question.
Hey, Judith: cat death AND "does heaven exist?" all in one book?! Nice job.
Hey, religious zealot: go censor your own books with photocopied cat angels and scotch tape, and leave my public library books alone.
7 comments:
Oh my gosh! too funny. I'm sending this to my mom (the librarian).
Oh, wow. Not good.
You forgot what town we live in. Snicker...snort...
Hmmmm.
So many ways to react to this.
I'm amused by the creative method of censorship used by an obviously concerned reader. That doesn't make censorship right, of course, but it made me smile.
However, I'll admit I'm bothered by the inclusion of such a question being included in a children's book that already deals with a heavy and difficult subject. I think I'd rather let parents decide when and how they broach the subject of heaven, instead of stumbling across it inadvertently in a book that will already spawn tough questions.
Beth, I understand what you're saying.
Normally we preread books just to be sure we agree. This time, we dove right in.
I was glad the book included that. But I subscribe to the message the author is sending. Willa (and probably most of her concrete thinking peers) has asked a lot of questions about "where is..." so the book isn't spawning tough questions in this case. I really appreciated how the book handled that.
Obviously the angel cat censorer did not. I am tickled with the thought that someone has a stack of angel cat strips pre-copied in an envelope, and constantly checks up the Barney book, prepared to cover up that section at all times.
If you don't like the content of a book, bring it back to the library and complain, but don't censor the book yourself! This is a free country, where diverse opinions are supposed to be encouraged. Public libraries have to appeal to all tastes, since it's taxpayers' money which keeps us going. Believe me, we get plenty of complaints on book subject matter, from serious to just plain silly.
Wow! Just.....wow!
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