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Thursday, July 26, 2007

Arbitrary Line Drawing

I don't know if the Junie B. Jones books will ever become an issue in my house, but I read this article in the New York Times about it (by, full disclosure, a friend of mine) with some interest. I suspect if Junie does raise her little head, I might not be able to roll out the welcome mat. Why, you ask? She sounds too annoying. I feel the same way about Elmo. Felix doesn't care for television as a general matter, but if he did, Elmo would still be out of the question because that voice makes me want to do something terrible to someone, probably myself.

As for Miss. Junie, from the sound of it, I would be irritated by having to engage in countless readings and re-readings of excessively cute antics and the charm of the little girl who thinks the green summer squash is called "Sue Keeny". Just that tidbit alone (gleaned from the article-- I haven't read the books) makes my teeth itch. Still if Felix wanted to read the books himself, I'd let him go to town.

This was generally my parents approach, I realize. A certain amount of stupidity was all right as long as they didn't have to partake of it as well. In grammar school, my sibling was a sucker for reruns of a truly unfunny sitcom (which shall remain nameless to preserve threatened dignity) and my mother would listen to gales of laughter from another room and say: "As long as I don't have to watch it."

Apparently some people also object to the fact that there is a certain rebellious streak in young Junie, that she is often anti-authoritarian and talks back. This is, if you ask me, a dopey problem to have and suggests to me that these parents would prefer that their kids never enjoy anything more fun or subversive than one of those William Wegman alphabet books (don't get me wrong-- they're great and gorgeous but hardly edgy). One hates to see what sorts of angry letters these people would write to Jane Austen if they saw how snarky and mean Elizabeth Bennet can get-- especially to her elders.

But then again, this probably says worlds about the critical values instilled in me: subversiveness is one thing, but stupidity is unacceptable.

And no one ever thought I would absorb bad behavior from what I read any more than they believed that my sibling would try to fly out the window after putting on a Superman cape.

posted by Elise at 8:10 AM

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3 Comments:

saint nora said...

i am a new fan of your blog.

thank you for writing about kids as a grown-up mother.

7/26/2007 9:51 AM

Laura Kramarsky said...

>>subversiveness if fine but stupidity is unacceptable.<<

One of Laura's Axioms For Living:
--Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.--

:)
Laura

7/26/2007 10:48 AM

Anonymous said...

I think there is little risk that either Felix or Sebastian will make grammatical errors based on popular children's books, whether "Junie B" (which I haven't read) or "Huckleberry Finn." Good idea to let children read anything they enjoy, but, of course, we don't have to read anything TO them unless we like it, too.
Sally

7/26/2007 3:20 PM

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