Now you come to mention it, it’s worth a try…
Occasional derailing, too.
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I agree with a lot of what you’re saying here, but I don’t think anyone’s objecting to the content of the book, at least in a general sense, just that it’s unabashedly sexist in such a reductive way. Your hypothetical generosity at the end of your comment toward the “next girl” could be framed as “maybe the next customer who doesn’t particularly like camping, regardless of their sex or gender, might find the content of the second book helpful” without having to apologize for the sexism.
EDITED for use of the proper form of “your”
Yes, when I go back and read the original I read into it that the OP was criticizing the books as an attempt to cross sell crappy products, but I see the implication is not there. Aside from the non-brick product (which we do not buy) and the fact that the sets are way-overpriced, the product seems not much different than the bricks I had when I was a kid.
As far as crappy books with product tie-ins, if my kids is more willing to learn to read because it is a Lego book, then I am okay with that… in moderation. Not all kids are gonna get into reading by starting with Canterbury Tales… I also supplement the occasional crappy book with product tie-in with something I like to call “parenting”.
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You realize this post is really an exercise in troll-baiting. Check out the number of comments vs. some of the cool BB stories with useful content. The real shame is the preoccupation with how things are perceived and how much conflict can be generated.
Resulting in this headline: “8-year-old gets sexist kids’ books yanked from bookstore.” And that end result, however unintended, is the only part of this whole affair I find regrettable. Ms. Cooper’s own blog post headline was “How my 8-year-old daughter got some sexist kids’ books yanked from the bookstore”.
Her kid was right to be upset. The bookstore can pull the books or not depending on whatever its owner wants to sell or be perceived as selling. My only departure is that I wouldn’t have wanted the books pulled, I’d have asked the store employee not to pull them (and explained why), and if the store decided to pull the books anyway, I would not have been quite so proud of the end result.
Boy, am I a jerk.
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They might if you start with The Miller’s Tale. Can’t wait for my kids to read that one!
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I may get roasted for this but so be it. There is significant difference in the rates of brain development between boys and girls. I believe there is a time and place for some of the sex specific activities and that includes reading. Boys and girls learn in different ways that have nothing to do with a desire for equality and respect between the sexes. My stance on this has nothing to do with politics though I consider myself a left leaning progressive. I want as much respect for the needs of my sons’ learning needs as I do for the needs of my granddaughters’
.
In considering the adage of “picking one’s battle’s” I feel that the struggle between girls vs boys adventure book is not worth much effort.
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Straw man…the store can’t legally sell porn to kids.
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Hey, I was happy enough when my daughter was into The Jabberwock when she was a wee one… my son… not so much into reading just yet. Maybe the Miller’s Tale is just what he needs…
You are right… I am gonna start driving trollies the cool BB stories, too.
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There are still plenty of good books that are published for kids. The problem appears to be that the inexpensive paperbacks that the schools buy up (and that our little darlings eagerly pluck from the shelves) are dominated by this kind of drivel. It’s not merely that they are little more than ads for various toys, but the quality of the language is deplorable. I have seen some that I swear must have been written by someone who only had English as a second language, and clearly never received any kind of editing.
My son is seven, and an avid reader, but it is an ongoing battle to divert his attention to books that offer some kind of model for language use (and offer a gripping good read too, of course). I am endlessly disappointed that the schools, when they choose which books to buy, appear to be uninterested in issues of quality. And don’t even get me going about Scholastic… (which was initially created to provide a means for kids to gain access to affordable editions of quality books…)
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There’s no money in it, anyhow. They can get it for free on the internet. (“I know where my old man hides his internet porn!”)
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yeah, but the characters and plot in those Harry Potter books are so intriguing! 
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Satan’s piss, but those books are bad. Bad, bad, bad.
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Seriously, though… I kinda got hooked into the characters and the general plot enough that by book 3 or 4, I was too invested to not finish… the writing did drive me crazy, though. And yes, I realize they are written for kids, but still…
I’ll concede that I may get a bit hyperbolic and curmudgeonly about the general-use brick to specialized-molded-and-branded pieces in LEGO these days. It’s truly one of my worse “kids these days” tendencies. I also don’t want to point any of my snark about corporate swill books toward you or any parents. As a non-parent, I don’t have a leg to stand on in the “whatever it takes to get my kids reading” fight. I do have some lingering frustration from my days teaching elementary school about the amount of hogwash that taxpayer dollars were spent on to fill classroom libraries. by the time I left, Kaplan, Disney and Nickelodeon were battling over whose intern-penned schlock would be the exclusive reading material to edge out talented and inspired children’s classics.
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My girlfriend gave me one to read. It was, á la Rand, not tossed aside lightly…
There are so many beautifully-written children’s books, that Rowling’s prose just hurts.
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You make that sound like a trivial distinction - yet, it’s the absolutely fundamental difference between a ban, and not-a-ban. Between the the massive power of the state forcing an outcome, and individuals in a free civil society raising moral arguments, debating, trying to influence one another, and wielding the limited power of their own discretionary spending.
Also, let’s keep one thing in mind - all this discussion of boycotts, petitions, and any other pressure tactics placed on a bookstore, is purely discussing a hypothetical. If you RTFA, you’ll note that the kid merely pointed out the distasteful character of the book, did not suggest it be removed, and it was the bookstore employee who came up with the idea to use her discretion and authority entrusted by her employer, to remove the books from the shelf.
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This is what I find so baffling. I just cannot fathom the outrage over complete garbage. This isn’t a book we’re talking about here. Hell, there isn’t even an author listed on the cover! It was probably part of a “made to clearance” remainder lot. If you want to make make an argument about sexism in actual children’s books like Harry Potter or Twilight or whatever, that’s one thing, but this is just junk from the get go.
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