As parents, we are always trying to give our children the best, most thoughtful environment and tools to help their growing minds mature. For many parents, that includes a heavy dose of children’s literature. Finding good children’s books can be pretty challenging in China for English speakers and Chinese alike. Bookstores are filled with colorful tomes marketed to parents (rather than their children) but when one actually starts digging in to the content, it can be difficult to find meaningful works.
There are the books with illustrations that are plastic (or computer generated) and unrealistic. There are the movie-themed books that are almost shamelessly created to create additional revenue for box office hits with little effort to deepen the story or add value. The books designed purely for teaching mechanical reading with flimsy or even illogical story lines and cheaply made commercial drawings. And now this. Some children’s literature critics are questioning classic award – winning books for the messages they convey.
The Rainbow Fish by Martin Phister is just one example of many. The story goes like this: there is a beautiful fish covered in sparkly rainbow scales who is very vain and has no friends. Then he meets a wise old octopus who explains the value of sharing and friendship, convincing him to give away the glittery scales to the other fish in order to win their friendship. On the face of it, it seems innocuous enough. It’s nice for children to think of others, to share the blessings they have. Right? Maybe not that simple.
Some critics have made the argument that the real hidden meaning in the book is in the following lessons:
- It is not acceptable to be physically more attractive than others.
- He must win friends over by bribing them with something they covet.
- In giving the other fish what they covet to buy their friendship, the Rainbow Fish must physically disfigure himself, aka “sharing”.
Pretty grim from that lens, right? But as parents, we may feel it behoves us to follow these trends in thinking as education and child psychology grow and change. They are certainly not static fields and neither should our view of all things children be stuck in tradition if that tradition no longer serves the highest purpose (which is of course, to raise healthy and savvy, self – aware actualized humans). If you choose to go down this rabbit hole of evaluating beloved classics, be prepared for some heartbreak as you find your favorite old book on the list. I know I was shocked and angry the first time a friend criticized my cherished TinTin series for being overtly racist. Some things are just too good to let go of.
There is a silver lining in it all. For me, I’d rather keep all my TinTin books and talk with my kids about how and why the stereotypes were used as such, how things have changed since that time, and what insights we have to gain through reading and reflecting on the moral and ethical questions that arise from reading books that are not neatly wrapped packages of prejudice and malice-free mental health. And that’s the key. If we use these kinds of literary experiences as springboards into the deeper questions below the storyline, they can be as revealing and cathartic to both our children and ourselves. Making the effort to have the conversations is of prime importance. We shouldn’t trust any author to be peddling good values to our children. In my experience, children get the nuances and point them out on their own if given the chance and they often are much more sophisticated thinkers than we give them credit for.
So have fun cracking open those old storybooks and let the debates begin! Happy reading.
Photo: Pixabay
