Worst. Mother. Ever.

[rivka]

How could I forget the cardinal rule of children's literature:

The beloved pet always dies in the end.

In my defense, I would never have dreamed that that trope started as early as the I Can Read series. But it does.

Alex sobbed. "Why would they WRITE a children's book like that?" she demanded. Um. Not sure. In middle grades novels, the dog dies to symbolize the lost innocence of childhood. But I-Can-Read books are for little kids.

Worst. Mother. Ever.

Comments

[rivka.livejournal.com]

"Don't write about that! Don't write about that!" Alex says.

"Why not? Don't you think we should warn other kids?"

"No. I want them to suffer dying. Then they can find out about it themselves."

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

. . . interesting.

She sees value in what she experienced.

I don't think this actually counts as "Worst Mother Ever" material.

[iamjw.livejournal.com]

That is interesting - and I'm wondering if that's the point? My first reaction was pretty much the same as yours - without the terrible mother aspect - of why on earth would someone write that. But maybe Alex has hit on the point: little kids experience death all the time. Most often with pets, but often enough with family members and friends. Maybe this is a way of showing them they're not alone and that death is part of the life cycle?

[zingerella.livejournal.com]

This is why I push to have material about sad things included in the primary resources I work on, for sure and certain. Because children experience loss and fear and sadness and illness, and stories that tell only of happy things don't always reflect their reality or apply to their situations.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Snerk! Good kid. And I agree with Xiphias -- if she says that, she doesn't think of it as Worst Mother Ever.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Wise girl, that Alex.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

If you were really the Worst Mother Ever, your daughter would not have said such a thing.

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

galagan was just saying, Alex is the best kid ever. But I think her subsequent comments really seal the deal.

At least you know she isn't *too* traumatized.

[saoba.livejournal.com]

I read this to grillghod and he laughed so hard he nearly choked.

She's fabulous, you know that, right?

[dornbeast.livejournal.com]

While she's right, it's probably a good thing for other parents to know.

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

Oh! A principled opposition to spoilers!

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I'd call it a principled objection to trigger warnings. Which is going to cause trouble for her in fandom someday.

[ruisseau.livejournal.com]

Later, after being traumatized again and again by Where the Red Fern Grows and Old Yeller, I recommend No More Dead Dogs by Gordan Korman. Definitely middle grades, but makes up for being kicked in the teeth by these books as a kid.

Also, poor Alex. :(

[shandra.livejournal.com]

Second this. :)

[dornbeast.livejournal.com]

Seriously, within age-appropriate limits, is there anything by Gordon Korman that isn't a great read?

[brainwane (from livejournal.com)]

I LOVE _No More Dead Dogs_ and clicked Comment to recommend it. And yes, Korman is fantastic.

dornbeast, I'm not terribly fond of some of his recent stuff, like _Swindle_ and _Zoobreak_. And I haven't read the sports series, The Jersey, or The 39 Clues. But yeah, I would recommend heartily nearly everything Korman wrote between 1978 and 2005. He's the only author I *collect* (children's stuff goes out of print so quickly!).

[naomikritzer]

I never read "Sounder" as a kid because it had a dog on the cover and it had won a Newbery and between the two I was SURE the dog was going to die, and really, SCREW that. They'd suckered me into reading the goddamn Yearling and they'd suckered me into reading Old Yeller and they'd even gotten me to read one where the dead pet is a raccoon, and I was DONE.

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

You might want to check out "No More Dead Dogs" by Gordon Korman if you haven't already.

[acceberskoorb.livejournal.com]

Not to be all competitive and whatnot but my Worst. Mother. Ever. incident today is WORSE THAN YOURS.

Try harder. You're making regular non-super-hero-moms feel BAD.

[acceberskoorb.livejournal.com]

but for realsies, though:
awwwww... :(

[carbonel]

My seven-year-old niece was traumatized for a while by Dewey, the Library Cat. To be fair, that one was based on a true story, so the cat didn't die to show loss of innocence; the cat died because the cat died.

Ditto for Jenny Lind and Her Listening Cat (a Scholastic book from my youth), but there they had the cat die offstage, and I only realized it was dead because its memory or ghost or something inspired her as an adult.

... and actually I AM the Worst Parent Ever

[zingerella.livejournal.com]

G's dad and I both are. He said so on Saturday.

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

Did I ever tell you about the night at the kid's psych ward where we played Old Yeller for the little hellions. As the movie rolled to it's end everybody was crying. Except for one 13 year old boy.

Who laughed.

After that we used the movie to figure out who was a baby psychopath and who wasn't.