GoodReads discussion: Racism in children's literature

A couple of comments I made on a discussion of children's literature and poetry over on GoodReads:

---

I wonder, are modern editions of A Child's Garden of Verses censored? I grew up with it myself, and I remember some expressions that might make some modern readers uncomfortable. Let me see, I suppose it's probably in the public domain now...

Ah yes:

Poem XXVIII
Foreign Children

Little Indian, Sioux, or Crow,
Little frosty Eskimo,
Little Turk or Japanee,
Oh! don't you wish that you were me?

You have seen the scarlet trees
And the lions over seas;
You have eaten ostrich eggs,
And turned the turtles off their legs.

Such a life is very fine,
But it's not so nice as mine:
You must often as you trod,
Have wearied NOT to be abroad.

You have curious things to eat,
I am fed on proper meat;
You must dwell upon the foam,
But I am safe and live at home.
Little Indian, Sioux or Crow,
Little frosty Eskimo,
Little Turk or Japanee,
Oh! don't you wish that you were me?

( Read more... )

I can't help but think of the many who have censored Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn over the years, entirely missing the profoundly anti-racist nature of that work.

GoodReads discussion: Racism in children's literature

A couple of comments I made on a discussion of children's literature and poetry over on GoodReads:

---

I wonder, are modern editions of A Child's Garden of Verses censored? I grew up with it myself, and I remember some expressions that might make some modern readers uncomfortable. Let me see, I suppose it's probably in the public domain now...

Ah yes:

Poem XXVIII
Foreign Children

Little Indian, Sioux, or Crow,
Little frosty Eskimo,
Little Turk or Japanee,
Oh! don't you wish that you were me?

You have seen the scarlet trees
And the lions over seas;
You have eaten ostrich eggs,
And turned the turtles off their legs.

Such a life is very fine,
But it's not so nice as mine:
You must often as you trod,
Have wearied NOT to be abroad.

You have curious things to eat,
I am fed on proper meat;
You must dwell upon the foam,
But I am safe and live at home.
Little Indian, Sioux or Crow,
Little frosty Eskimo,
Little Turk or Japanee,
Oh! don't you wish that you were me?

( Read more... )

I can't help but think of the many who have censored Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn over the years, entirely missing the profoundly anti-racist nature of that work.

Sebastian and the Hockey Game

On Sunday we went to see the Providence Bruins play the Springfield Flyers at the Dunkin Donuts Center (in Providence). It was a Cub Scout event. Teri couldn't come, because she was at the Christmas party for her work.

It was actually pretty fun. Sebastian didn't pay that much attention to the game, but he enjoyed screaming his lungs out for the Bruins. Here's a photo; unfortunately it's the only one I have, because I forgot the regular camera at home.



There was a fight that shocked him a bit, I think. And every time there was a goal and that horn blared, he covered his ears; he shouted "I'm going deaf!".

The Bruins won, 5-1.

Sebastian and the Hockey Game

On Sunday we went to see the Providence Bruins play the Springfield Flyers at the Dunkin Donuts Center (in Providence). It was a Cub Scout event. Teri couldn't come, because she was at the Christmas party for her work.

It was actually pretty fun. Sebastian didn't pay that much attention to the game, but he enjoyed screaming his lungs out for the Bruins. Here's a photo; unfortunately it's the only one I have, because I forgot the regular camera at home.



There was a fight that shocked him a bit, I think. And every time there was a goal and that horn blared, he covered his ears; he shouted "I'm going deaf!".

The Bruins won, 5-1.

Purple belt

On Saturday Sebastian took the test for his purple belt in karate. He got it. Here he is with his instructor.



He's doing better than I expected with karate, to be honest. He's gotten good at shouting and at blocking. At the hockey game on Sunday, another cub scout kept hitting him with a foam "Bruins" claw; rather than falling on the ground and saying "I give up!" as he did several months ago when we saw the PawSox, he was able to block pretty well.

But I still told him that when someone is hitting you, you get away from them if you possibly can. :D

Purple belt

On Saturday Sebastian took the test for his purple belt in karate. He got it. Here he is with his instructor.



He's doing better than I expected with karate, to be honest. He's gotten good at shouting and at blocking. At the hockey game on Sunday, another cub scout kept hitting him with a foam "Bruins" claw; rather than falling on the ground and saying "I give up!" as he did several months ago when we saw the PawSox, he was able to block pretty well.

But I still told him that when someone is hitting you, you get away from them if you possibly can. :D

GoodReads Review: Lars and Lisa In Sweden

Lars and Lisa in Sweden by Alida Vreeland

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a book you'll probably never get to read. It's long out of print, and this sort of book simply isn't being written or published any more.

And that's a pity, because it's a charming, delightful book.

Lars and Lisa are a young brother and younger sister living in Sweden in the late (post-WWII) 1940s. Lars is a budding artist; many of the illustrations in the book are attributed to him, although he primarily paints with watercolors and the illustrations are line drawings in black and white. Vreeland illustrated the book herself, and did a wonderful job.

The book focuses on the family life of the children as they go to cultural events such as Walpurgis Night, Christmas, and May Day. It also follows them as they travel to different parts of Sweden. I realize that this description may make the book sound dull; please believe me when I tell you that it isn't. Vreeland has a lively and engaging writing style, and the events she writes about are quite interesting and memorable - as I can attest to personally, since I read the book myself when I was very young. I remembered and liked it well enough to search it out as an adult so I could read it to my son!

There are so many memorable passages. Their journey on a boat through locks that raise and lower them in a canal. Lisa as "Saint Lucy" for Christmas (her evergreens-and-candles crown is simply astonishing; did they really do that? Apparently so!). Christmas cats. The flying boat ride in the amusement park. Dancing around the bonfire on Walpurgis Night. Lars' continuing progress as an artist. It's all beautifully handled and very engaging.

The book is quite appropriate for any age, in terms of plot. I'd say that it could be read to most children aged four or older, and that children as young as eight could easily read it for themselves. It's a chapter book with intermittant illustrations, not a picture book; it took me about ten nights to read it all to my son. I hope we'll read it again before too long.

View all my reviews.

GoodReads Review: Lars and Lisa In Sweden

Lars and Lisa in Sweden by Alida Vreeland

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a book you'll probably never get to read. It's long out of print, and this sort of book simply isn't being written or published any more.

And that's a pity, because it's a charming, delightful book.

Lars and Lisa are a young brother and younger sister living in Sweden in the late (post-WWII) 1940s. Lars is a budding artist; many of the illustrations in the book are attributed to him, although he primarily paints with watercolors and the illustrations are line drawings in black and white. Vreeland illustrated the book herself, and did a wonderful job.

The book focuses on the family life of the children as they go to cultural events such as Walpurgis Night, Christmas, and May Day. It also follows them as they travel to different parts of Sweden. I realize that this description may make the book sound dull; please believe me when I tell you that it isn't. Vreeland has a lively and engaging writing style, and the events she writes about are quite interesting and memorable - as I can attest to personally, since I read the book myself when I was very young. I remembered and liked it well enough to search it out as an adult so I could read it to my son!

There are so many memorable passages. Their journey on a boat through locks that raise and lower them in a canal. Lisa as "Saint Lucy" for Christmas (her evergreens-and-candles crown is simply astonishing; did they really do that? Apparently so!). Christmas cats. The flying boat ride in the amusement park. Dancing around the bonfire on Walpurgis Night. Lars' continuing progress as an artist. It's all beautifully handled and very engaging.

The book is quite appropriate for any age, in terms of plot. I'd say that it could be read to most children aged four or older, and that children as young as eight could easily read it for themselves. It's a chapter book with intermittant illustrations, not a picture book; it took me about ten nights to read it all to my son. I hope we'll read it again before too long.

View all my reviews.

Gifts

I don't think I'll be getting many gifts this Christmas. Teri and I can't afford to get anything for each other. And let me be clear: I'm definitely not doing that coy asking-their-flist-for-gifts crap that some people do (generally attractive young women who like to write about their interesting sex lives and post pictures of themselves half-dressed). I don't respect that.

But I know that one person from my family will have drawn my name from the hat. And on the off chance that they need ideas and are reading this (neither is particularly likely), I'm posting this list of things that I'd like:

1. A long warm scarf. My current scarf is thin and short; this morning I was really cold. Gray would be nice.
   
2. A shower mirror. I shave in the shower, and a mirror would make my life easier.
   
3. A large black fur hat like my grandfather used to wear. Not real fur, of course. My current wool hat looks stupid and tends to slowly rise up on my head, making me look ridiculous. The Cossack Diplomat Cap looks sort of like his hat did, except that I think his looked more like curly wool.
   
4. A USB portable hard drive, preferably 500 GB. This is too expensive, of course.
   

The nice thing about wanting mostly cheap things is that I can eventually buy them for myself!

Oh, jeeze. A permanent membership to LJ would be nice, too - even though I still don't trust SUP.

Gifts

I don't think I'll be getting many gifts this Christmas. Teri and I can't afford to get anything for each other. And let me be clear: I'm definitely not doing that coy asking-their-flist-for-gifts crap that some people do (generally attractive young women who like to write about their interesting sex lives and post pictures of themselves half-dressed). I don't respect that.

But I know that one person from my family will have drawn my name from the hat. And on the off chance that they need ideas and are reading this (neither is particularly likely), I'm posting this list of things that I'd like:

1. A long warm scarf. My current scarf is thin and short; this morning I was really cold. Gray would be nice.
   
2. A shower mirror. I shave in the shower, and a mirror would make my life easier.
   
3. A large black fur hat like my grandfather used to wear. Not real fur, of course. My current wool hat looks stupid and tends to slowly rise up on my head, making me look ridiculous. The Cossack Diplomat Cap looks sort of like his hat did, except that I think his looked more like curly wool.
   
4. A USB portable hard drive, preferably 500 GB. This is too expensive, of course.
   

The nice thing about wanting mostly cheap things is that I can eventually buy them for myself!

Oh, jeeze. A permanent membership to LJ would be nice, too - even though I still don't trust SUP.

Cow Art

This is part of a comment I wrote over on Askville. I've probably written about this before, but not for a long time.

Here's a performance art piece I once dreamed up. I never actually performed it - in fact, I never did ANY performance art, though I saw some pretty strange ones - but here's my idea:

The artist leads a cow into the room. The audience is encouraged to pat the cow, perhaps feed it some grain or hay, water it...make friends with it for a little while. As they do, the artist drags in plastic sheeting and lays it down all over the area.

Then it's time for the audience to say goodbye to their new mooing friend, because the artist slaughters the steer in front of their eyes. S/he goes on to butcher it, cutting it into steaks, chops, etc. and discussing the whole process in a running commentary.

Lastly the artist grinds up some of the meat into hamburgers, and cooks them right there on the stage. Burgers are offered to all in the audience.

It would be a long show...but I think the audience would remember it! :D

Cow Art

This is part of a comment I wrote over on Askville. I've probably written about this before, but not for a long time.

Here's a performance art piece I once dreamed up. I never actually performed it - in fact, I never did ANY performance art, though I saw some pretty strange ones - but here's my idea:

The artist leads a cow into the room. The audience is encouraged to pat the cow, perhaps feed it some grain or hay, water it...make friends with it for a little while. As they do, the artist drags in plastic sheeting and lays it down all over the area.

Then it's time for the audience to say goodbye to their new mooing friend, because the artist slaughters the steer in front of their eyes. S/he goes on to butcher it, cutting it into steaks, chops, etc. and discussing the whole process in a running commentary.

Lastly the artist grinds up some of the meat into hamburgers, and cooks them right there on the stage. Burgers are offered to all in the audience.

It would be a long show...but I think the audience would remember it! :D