These are the titles titillating my two-year-old toddler (dang, can't think of any more T words) presently. Oh, right — today.

It's one of those rhythmic, toe-tapping reads that makes you happy to have a toddler to read to, like Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb
This book cracks Mikko up in two unexpected ways: First, one of the early phrases is "Grandpa toot-toots," meaning on a trumpet, but my son has a wicked sense of toilet humor. (Hmm, wonder where he got that from... The thing is, you're allowed to be juvenile when you actually are one.) Secondly, each section ends with the baby shouting "Go, man, go," and Mikko literally screeches out "Goooooo" and employs his sign language for the word, learned from Baby Signing Time because I didn't have the foresight to realize it would be such a beloved sign. (It's pointing both index fingers in the direction you're go, go, going.)
Jazz Baby makes me happy as a parent, too, because it demonstrates a Continuum-happy lifestyle where the baby is surrounded by nurturing family members, neighbors, and friends of all ages and both genders. There is no disrespect for baby here, or for any age. Everyone's musical contributions are valid, and I think — and maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I'll go with it — that that shows that every person is validated and honored as well.
And, hey, as I mentioned, it's stinkin' fun to read!

I have mixed feelings toward word books, without story to connect the vocabulary. I say mixed, because before having an actual child with whom to interact with them, I used to find them quite boring as a reader, but now I see how much delight Mikko takes in them. In fact, his favorite book for some time was First 100 Words
So, back to Richard Scarry... I'll just say, they're a big hit. Mikko goes ga-ga over the pages with trains, a recent obsession. He'll start saying "choo choo" and making the train sign (rubbing two fingers from each hand together) while I feverishly and obediently flip pages. Once I find the right one: "Train! Choo choo!" His joy is worth every hour spent poring over word books.

I should have known, though. I realized that the books must have been updated since their first publication, because there's a recycling truck on one page, and I know these books were around when I was a young'un. Let's just say that was before recycling, kids.

Let's contrast: The woman police officer was definitely tokened in. A mother instead of a father used to be pushing the pram and leading a little boy (now a little girl) along on a trike. The house has been expanded to switch up the family roles. Originally, a woman bunny presided over the kitchen, while a boy bunny brushed his teeth upstairs. Now the boy has inexplicably changed to a girl (because girls have good hygiene too, dang it), and a man bunny has come to join the female in the kitchen. He's juicing some oranges for his tooth-brushing daughter and his layabout other child, and he's happy about it. There used to be only a male farmer in the field, hanging out with a scarecrow. The scarecrow has since become a woman farmer, and the term has been changed to the plural. The cow's still a cow. The firefighters are gender neutral, because I can't see if they've got skirts under their long coats.
Wasn't that fun?
And, hey, here's another funny thing as I'm learning German: There is no word I can find for "firefighter," only "fireman" or "firewoman." For some reason, this confounds me, because I want there to be a gender-neutral term.
Oh, here's another funny-slash-disturbing thing about the Richard Scarry books. In one of the train compartments, there's a pig eating what looks undeniably like a pork chop. I am agog.
2 comments:
We have that original 1963 book in French and my son loves it , he stares endlessly at the page with the instruments. Your comparison is very interesting and makes me want to grab a bunch of long published kids books and compare.
I am so glad you liked Jazz Baby!
Oh, yea, you found my shout-out! I was planning to head over and tell you how much we enjoyed your recommendations.
I've actually been inspired to check several versions of kids' books out of the library, because they really do change things quite a bit. Some things make sense — the board books conserve pages, for instance. And then there's the updating of racist or sexist or whateverist issues. But some just puzzle me. Big Dog, Little Dog, for instance. In the original: "Fred always had money. Ted was always broke." (Or was it the other way around? Whatever.) It's now something like "Fred always had money. Ted never had money." Is it that it was slang? And they cut out my favorite line: "The bird's got the word!"
Post a Comment