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Blood and Bedtime Stories
That was Miss Trunchbull holding a student upside down, by the way. I am sure you are quite familiar with Quentin Blake’s illustration at Roald Dahl’s book covers.
As a reader, I have no problem with violent content in children books, particularly middle reader books for children aged 8-12. Not to the extend of practically endorsing violence in children books; but if one day I had a child and found an illustration of a school principal holding a student upside down (plus other misconducts that would not go unnoticed in real life) in her books, I would not give a fuss about it.
I would not even give a fuss about Harry Potter being tied onto a tombstone to have his blood taken to bring a noseless dark wizard back into being, or even about the theme of death in EB White’s book.
Mainly because I do not believe in oversimplifying writing for children. Children are not simple creature. They can get tired of seeing princesses living happily ever after; and if you let them to, they can give you many alternatives why Hansel and Gretel’s father abandoned his children in the forest like that. They can digest stories that are not set in school. Their little brains are capable of learning five foreign languages, and only Heaven knows what other complexity that they would be able to digest if only they had the chance to do so. They are capable of using their imagination to get into a new place.
They are also able to sleep for nine hours; I consider that a talent but never mind.
Children, or life as a child in particular, is not always about candies and rainbows. It is not always easy. Some children are abused, bullied. Some had seen the death of a close relative. Some are terminally ill. Some are being trapped in refugee camp, wars. Some had seen blood and violent in real life.
Not writing about death and sadness would be the same as lying to them. Pretending as if all teachers will always be kind and nurturing would mean losing their trust, especially if they had been mistreated by teachers. Acting as if we will always be happy ever after will only lead them to begrudge the less favourable version called the reality.
Writing for children will be pointless if we failed to connect to them. Often, the best way to connect is to share pain. And to stop pretending as if everything is all right.
Inside my head a mental figure of a mother showed up. She had a typical mom dress with typical mom haircut, and her red lips moved angrily as she exclaimed to me, “I don’t want my kids to copy violence from TV! Or from the Internet! Or even books!”
This is the moment when I would put on my pointed hat and sit on top of a toadstool in the middle of the forest. I would lift up my hand and calm the mother down. “Relax, Madame. Put things into perspective. Put down that spatula and put it back in the kitchen where it belongs. Let me ask you a question.”
What is actually the problem here? The violence in children’s book, or the lack of parental guidance and supervision?
The world will not cease to be a cruel place just because you tried hard to cover your child’s eyes from it. Allow him to develop his critical thinking as a tool to help him filter all the bad things themselves, without having to have your hands over his eyes.
Now, to the wizard’s gathering.
Books are mummified trees
They are a way to prevent barks and leaves from rotting and turning into soil.
I am so angry that I started crying now
Someone had deliberately re-arranged my bookshelves, which I have arranged in correct order based on the books’ language and genre.
The worst part? Some books actually went missing.
The worst of the worst?
IT IS MY FUCKING HARRY POTTER AND ROALD DAHL COLLECTION.
WHOEVER IS DOING THIS MAY AS WELL CUT MY LIMBS.
Why Reading is Triumphant
“Why do these old people and boring teachers keep on insisting that we should read? What makes it so important? I mean, if I want knowledge I can just turn on Discovery Channel, and if I want stories I can just go to the cinema.”
“Well, to make it easier, let’s take an example of the Harry Potter series, both the books and the movies. When you are reading the books, you basically read an explanation given by the author on how the lead character looks like –and then you started to imagine it in your head. You began to make a mental visualisation of a young British boy, with jet-black hair, green eyes, rounded spectacles. And if I challenge you to put the boy you just imagine into a piece of paper, I am 100% certain that both you and I are going to come up with a very different picture.
"Okay…”
“In the other hands, we have the Harry Potter movies, which –forgive me for saying this- does not leave much to the imagination. In the movies, Harry Potter is Daniel Radcliffe. How does he look like? Well, like that. You can just point up to the screen to show how Harry Potter looks like. You just accept the fact that Harry Potter looks like that, without any chances to use your own imagination and create your own version of Harry Potter. There is no individualism; everyone is encouraged to accept that THAT is how Harry Potter looks like. And there are not much working and imagining going on inside your brain; which why your boring teachers insist that reading books are triumphant.”
When you start to look like your boyfriend