Cup of Joe / May 2012 / Are children’s books getting weirder?

May 2, 201209:41 AMCup of Joe

Your weekly dose of strange parenting news, trends, and polls

Are children’s books getting weirder?

I was a bit of a bookworm while growing up. I had an assortment of zany kids’ books featuring everything from swamp monsters to dinosaur fossils. But the kids’ books of today seem just a little too weird to me—or maybe I was more sheltered than I realized.

Take, for example, the newest book written by Ibrahim Ginoschió de Osceola, Enter the Corn Bunny.

In the book, the main character Bony the Corn Bunny steps in as the Tooth Fairy’s substitute while she goes on vacation. Through Bony’s magical powers of invisibility and dream surfing, he goes on an adventure hopping through children’s dreams and gathering their teeth, all while teaching them valuable life lessons.

I can appreciate a good fantasy novel, but this seems just a little over the top in my opinion. I’m not sure I would feel comfortable letting my child read about some dream-surfing mythical creature called a corn bunny. But the book gets even stranger. …

The author takes a very novel approach to teaching children to read and spell—the book contains multiple spelling mistakes that kids are asked to locate and write down. Children who identify the mistakes and contact the author have an opportunity to win a prize.

If I ever publish a book, I’m definitely taking this route! Forget Spell Check or paying someone to edit my book, I’ll just give a prize to whoever finds the most mistakes!

In all seriousness though, I question whether this is the most effective method to teach children proper spelling.

Of course, maybe I’m just overly sensitive. The book does contain an important underlying lesson about the value of listening—something that has fallen by the wayside in today’s society. Either way, I don’t think I would read this one to my kids and they certainly won’t be waiting for the Corn Bunny instead of the Tooth Fairy.

For more information about this book visit: http://www.amazon.com/Enter-Bunny-Ibrahim-Ginoschio-Osceola/dp/0595452736