I spend a fair bit of time reading childrens books these days and have a few things that annoy me about them. If you’re not a parent, skip this one.
Some authors of series obviously haven’t given enough thought to the naming of the characters. Two examples: The Berenstain Bears and Franklin the Turtle.
Everyone in the Berenstain universe has real names (i.e. Lizzy Bruin, Mr. Grizzle, Fred, etc.), except the Berenstain family. The family is named Papa, Mama, Brother, and Sister. That is fine if they call each other that, but it appears to be their given names, which everyone else calls them. The rest of Bear Country must surely think them a most odd family having names like that. And inconsistency is introduced in newer stories (and makes the family even more odd) when another baby is born and they give a real (albeit not very creative) name: Honey. No wonder Brother Bear gets teased at school.
The Franklin the Turtle universe is the opposite. Franklin’s family are the only ones with names… everyone else is just called by what species they are. Franklin has many friends, like Bear, Goose, Snail, Fox, and so on. I’m not sure if any of these poor unnamed characters have siblings; one would hope not. Most parents have a hard enough time yelling the correct name. “Bear! I mean Bear, no Bear! Come clean up your mess!” Confusion must reign in Franklin’s world.
When you create a story for kids featuring anthropomorphic animals, how do you decide which ones get intelligence and which ones are pets and/or food? Why is Goofy not like Pluto? How can Mickey and crew sit down to eat a turkey dinner? Does Donald Duck get offended when they do?
Speaking of anthropomorphic characters, I for one am quite thankful that trains, cars, helicopters, boats, etc. are not really controlled by bratty five-year old personalities. I feel much more comfortable letting bratty five-year olds charge around in their forty-pound bodies, not watching where they are going, as opposed to several tons of a steam train who has a bad temper and isn’t paying attention to that rail car in the way. The world is dangerous enough with bratty twenty-something year olds texting while driving, thank you very much.
Maybe I should trade the kids books for books without pictures for awhile.
Have you looked at the “Jesus storybook Bible”? Absolutely the best bible children book I have seen. Highly recommended.
Hahaha!!! I find myself focused on children’s books a lot now that I work with them each day at the library! My favourite of all time is one my mom read to me years ago, “Something from Nothing” by Phoebe Gilman. Some of my new favs are “The Lion and the Mouse” by Jerry Pinkney – a wordless picture book that won the Caldecott medal this year and “Sir Reginald’s Logbook” by Matt Hammill – where Sir Reginald goes on a jungle adventure in the most unlikely place.
I don’t have to read any book over and over and over again to anyone at this time, but I have several families that come in to get new books all the time. My suggestion is if you are tired of your own books, be sure to visit the library and get a new set of books to read each week or start reading chapter books to your children – there are many classics I wish I had read (or someone read them to me) when I was younger. My dad read a few of the children’s illustrated classics to us one or two chapters at a time. We all enjoyed gathering in the living room to hear about Tom Sawyer or War of the Worlds or Black Beauty. 🙂
Happy reading about Brother, Sister, Franklin and friends.