My daughter is 11 now but she read all those Junie B's and I HATED them with a passion.  I was one of those who couldn't stand reading them to her because I detested how she  misused the language.  I let her read them on her own because she loved Junie B. and I didn't want to censor her for this particular literary misdemeanor.  She soon moved on to Beverly Cleary, Andrew Clements, and others.  She has not mimicked Junie's twisted language nor has she taken anything else she's read in books as "the way to be".  My advice would be to let her read the books she wants and use them as a teaching oportunity.   What a perfect way to illustrate history to her, the books already have her interest.  She can how far women and other minorities have come.  It's happening in her lifetime with Hillary running as a Presidential candidate and with Barack hopefully to become our first African American president.  The world evolves.  Better to explain than to evade, I think. 

merlotmom

sorry for the typos, it's late!

merlotmom

Oh I forgot about Beezus and Ramona!  They are so great. 

I personally am not sure that you could accuse Beverly Clearly of sexism because one of her characters says sexist things.  But maybe you are not doing that?  I dont think there is much wrong with a parent "editing" a book, but on the other hand, kids live in our real world and have to deal with Henrys all the time - so I would think its better to have him there in all his grumpyness and possibly - as you did - use him to talk about issues.

I'm very careful about judging childrens books in this way.  I once read about a mom who would only tell scary monster stories by saying things like - "remember, the monster had a mommy too, and he was scared sometimes" thinking that this would help her kids to become more caring.  There is a very good reason why kids like scary monster stories, and "editing" the story like this takes away the whole point . 

 I had the exact same reaction to Henry and Beezus AND Misty of Chincoteague! And Mad Scientists' Club, and so many other books I love. When I'm reading it to my son, the good parts are still good, but the bad parts are like sexist poison and I can't let them pass unremarked. My solution is to point out those statements or situations (i.e. that it is not fair that boys only can participate in Pony Penning Day roundup on Assateague Island, and that the way the boy is thinking of his sister is sexist).  But, also, I think it is helpful to write in the margin of the book. A big arrow and "sexist!!" or "racist!! this is not okay!" in the margin, makes me feel more like I"m teaching a crucial skill, the skill of noticing the sexism that is still around us all the time in fairly benign situations.  

If you read Doctor Dolittle books to your sprogs you will need some serious annotation skills because Polynesia the parrot really can throw around racist terms like no one else...  And the entire story line of Bumpo wanting to become white needs some complicated explaining.  (He wants the Doctor to make him white, because he wanted to be a fairy tale prince kissing a princess to wake her up, but the princess he found was white and ran away from him.  He is an interesting and great character in many other ways and the books are pretty awesome...

Thanks for this post! I'd love to hear other people's take on this issue!

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Liz Henry
lizzard@bookmaniac.net
Badgermama - personal & mommyblog

I got adept at editing books without missing a beat while my kids were very little, but now that the oldest can read, I decided to stop because she would surely correct me.  I've decided that exposing her to this sort of thing is an education in itself, as long as we discuss it and make it clear that we don't share the same values.  Living in our household & seeing how we behave and listening to us speak our opinions will have a much greater impact on their thinking than some book that espouses old-fashioned ideas.  That said, after reading the first Junie B. Jones book, I've gone out of my way to try to keep her from reading the rest of the series!   

Great post. At my school, we read aloud to our third grade students at the end of each school day, and I often encounter the problem of not wanting to read the book quite like the author wrote it. In a school setting though, it's easy to stop and discuss the ideas with the kids, and one of the most exciting things about teaching is noticing how the newer generations really do become more evolved in their thinking. Certainly an author's stereotypical portrayal of a character can be a learning experience.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

As my daughters (now 8 and 6) got older I started checking out library books that I remember enjoying as a kid (I'm 42) - many of the books were written in the 1950s.  I got so put off by all the sexist references (which I did skip as I read out loud) that I've simply stopped using those books.  Specifically I was reading the Mushroom Planet series and Edward Eager books about magic.  It was quite telling for me that I didn't give any of the sexist comments a thought when I read them as a kid and now I find them appalling. 

 Edward Eager is pretty bad. I had thought of his books as great because they were mixed groups of girls and boys having adventures. I don't know why it's necessary every other adventure for the girls to do all the cooking and washing up and the boys to point out how not-brave and non-physically skilled most of the girls are.

 Anyway, I don't edit out the sexist or racist bits, but I do pause and point out what I think is wrong with them.  It is a sort of teaching moment.  Which, actually, is better than pretending to children that racism and sexism don't exist.

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Liz Henry
lizzard@bookmaniac.net
Badgermama - personal & mommyblog

I think these books provide an excellent opportunity for discussion on how societal attitudes have changed over the years.  I had not thought much about this, so thanks for the post.  I grew up reading "older" books such as Cleary, Du Jardin and a series by Mary Calhoun about a girl named Katie John (who is quite rambunctious).  I am excited about reading these with my girl someday, but realize now, I may need to prepare myself for such topics as you have written about. 

http://rancidraves.blogspot.com/

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Great topic!

I absolutely edit though not nearly as much because my kids are older now (8 through 14). 

My first two memories of editing are the following:

Big Ball of String: there's a whole repetition of the boy who is home sick using a bbgun.  I know -not everyone would edit that out, but I really hated the references and this was when my oldest was probably about 2-4 years old.

The Hardy Boys - oh I was so unhappy about this! But I couldn't get past the first few pages.  One of my brother-in-laws gave my oldest a set of five Hardy Boys books when he was about five.  We started one immediately and by the third or fourth page, I knew I was giving the books away.  The references to men versus women, what the mother did for the dad and so on were unbelievable - Men: strong.  Women: dainty.

I know I won't be able to monitor forever but you know, I only get to say I'm their parent and I get to make choices for a little while.  After that, they have to do the best they can. I can't insulate or isolate them, but I can give them choices that better reflect what I hope they'll come to believe is the best.

Jill
Writes Like She Talks

Children benefit from being offered the opportunity to evaluate competing value systems.  It teaches them to think.    I think it is best not to compromise the integrity of an author's text - if it really offends you, then banish it.  Otherwise, read it as it is and use that as an opportunity for discussion.

at the amount of editing I have to do when I read to my four year old. There is one in particular I edit everytime: Purplicious. It is the second in a series, and the first, Pinkalicious, is a cute story about a girl who turns pink after eating too many pink cupcakes. What mom hasn't threatened her child with this possibility? :) I was looking forward to the second one, but when we brought it home (that is what I get for not reading it in the bookstore!) and started reading it to my daughter, I was like AAACK, this is mini-Mean Girls language. So I edited my patoot off, and I just recently put it backwards on the shelf so it isn't as visible. 

I'm not expecting I'll be able to edit her reading selection for very long if my history is any indication, but I'm going to while I still have some modicum of control! 

Lara

Notions of Identity

Okay, I hit a nerve here. Thanks, everyone. I love to hear how other parents handle this. 

Your Pop Culture Librarian also writes almost daily at I, Asshole.

Even as an adult there are books that have characterizations of Black and other people of color that make me cringe but it doesn't stop me from reading them (usually) - and I'm talking about contemporary work.  When I read old works - to myself or to my children when they were younger, I always put them in context.  I did the same with movies.

There's no way for children to avoid images that are less than "perfect" - whatever that means.  I read them a wide range of literature, including folk tales from many cultures.  They both read today and have a wide range of interests.

Keep the dialogue going.  I can't wait to share some of the beloved books of my childhood with my granddaughter in a few years.

I think it is wrong to edit because I think it is helicopter parenting.  You are over protecting kids from the REAL world. Point out the sexism, discuss it - age appropriately and get your kids ready for dealing with the difficuties of life. There is a lot of discrimination of all types of people and every generation must learn about it to in fact actually change it! Girls especially need to see the progress we have made and yet be inspired and empowered to bring about MORE change.

Candeelady

Raising Tweens to be Fantastic Women and Easy Crafts

http://www.gogogluegunfun.com

BUT it is a topic near and dear to my heart. I USED to edit on the fly, and still do when I'm feeling lazy and don't want to engage my daughter's brain at bedtime and spend an hour discussing WHY WHY WHY?!?!

Now, though, I let it go and sometimes comment on what is being read, and my daughter at 8 has developed some decent critical skills on her own that allow for reading the original and discussing the anachronisms. She sees things in her own life and we discuss stuff as it comes up, which I think is the optimal way to handle all those tough discusions of race, sexism, and equality.

My son, however, who is ASD and only 5? He gets the HIGHLY edited version of most stories. Why? Here's an example: he is currently obsessed with the death of Jesse Helms, which he read about over my shoulder while I was surfing the CNN website. He wanted an explanation of why people were happy that he died, what he had done wrong, and how long he would be dead. !!! And after not talking about it for a while, today, in the car, he said, "How long was that man who wasn't fair to other people living for?" Yeah, so I edit the books.

I am sooooo not about editing.  At this point, I let my daughter watch / read anything she wants and we just talk about it. HOWEVER, when she was born, we were given what seemed like a kwadjillion copies of The (*#%@!!) Rainbow Fish, and I about vomitted and gagged the first time I read it to my then 2-day old baby.  (I still whisper apologies in her ear when she's sleeping, just in case any of it got through.)

In short, it is about a beautiful rainbow fish that has gloriously sparkly scales unlike any other fish in "School." All the other fish were jealous and didn't like her, because she was different.  So she, one by one, gave away all her scales so that everyone could be exactly the same and she was no longer different, having given away everything that made her unique.

WRETCHED!

I re-wrote - literally - the whole thing and taped in new words for her. (I loved the illustrations.) In my version, the rainbow fish helped all the other fish find the things that were unique and different about themselves. Everyone was unique and valued for who they were and what they were good at, and everyone was allowed to be different.

Other than that, no, I don't censor. (That was enough for a lifetime.

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Alyssa Royse

Just Cause It: A Web Site To Save The World

Start Her Up: A Blog for Women Entrepreneurs