Monday, October 3, 2011

The Boy Who Cried Wolf, by Tony Ross

 Thankfully, we got this one from the library and didn't buy it.  It would probably be awesome for an older child (older than kindergarten) that was already familiar with the original tale, and had a dark sense of humor, but this was amazingly BAD for a Kindergartner who gets upset about any mention of death.

This wolf eats people, not sheep.  The little boy shows up naked on several pages, and while nakedness isn't too much of an issue for me, even Zora was like "why is he naked?".  The wolf eats the grown-ups after they tell the boy that he shouldn't tell lies (yeah, great message), then he eats the boy.  The last page is the wolf laying in the boys bed sucking on his bones.  What the Heck?  This is just insane.

I can see an older kid getting a kick out of the twist, (like kids who love "Good Night Goon", an awesome take-off of "Good Night Moon" meant for an older kid audience) but it is a phenomenally bad choice to introduce the story to a child, particularly if you are trying to introduce the morality of the story and/or the origin of the phrase "don't cry wolf".

I think about the only valuable thing she learned from it was to stay away from wolves because they might throw salt on you and eat you, especially if they are wearing tuxedos.


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