not all books are created equal
Last year my daughter started reading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series and boy am I sorry she did. Granted I’m partially to blame since I bought them for her via her Scholastic Book order from school. They looked cute and I love to encourage her to read children’s books. Little did I know!!
She devoured the first three books. She begged for the last book and used her money at the school book fair to purchase the Do-It-Yourself version. The first red flag was raised when I casually mentioned the children’s book to her third grade teacher. He shook his head in disgust about the roll model the main character presents. When I asked my daughter why she liked the books so much she replied that they were REALLY funny. I figured that she loved the potty humor and like all elementary kids aspires to be “older” (aka a teenager in middle school). At some point she gave me the book to read so I could see how funny it was. Sufficiently curious, I decided to take her up on the offer. After all, I started reading the Harry Potter books because I wanted to understand what all the controversy was about when they first came out.
Now imagine my surprise to discover just how vehemently I objected to the books. It’s not simply about bad behavior or an anti-hero main character. Simply put, Greg, the key individual in the book (which is written in the first person narrative) is a mean spirited, socially misfit middle school boy. He is one of the last individuals that I would want my daughter to admire and emulate. I’m sure that some parents think that there is nothing wrong with the book since it’s fiction. I might have agreed until my daughter talked about how cool the character was and then pretended to be sick just like the character did in one scene. At that point, I decided to sit down and “talk” with my daughter. I explained that many of the things that Greg did were not funny. His behavior and actions were wrong, mean spirited and would not have been allowed in our family. We also talked about how the mother should have done more to “protect” Greg from his older sibling Roderick which was actually comforting to my daughter.
I encourage you to pick up the book, read it and then discuss it with your children – maybe during dinner with your family. I’d love to hear your thoughts about the book. Post a comment and share it with others.
