Thursday, April 2, 2009

They're Not on Your Side

So, a coworker of mine wrote a children's book, and he generously gave me a copy to see if it would make sense to talk about here. It looked sweet, and I dutifully took it home, and set it down with my bag and shoes in the entry hall.
Little did I know.
The book is a neatly flipped echo of the adult refrain, "But we're doing this for you!" For instance, the narrator, an older sister who is offering tips to a younger sibling, suggests, "You can help Mom and Dad keep the tub clean by sloshing the water around while you're playing. You can also wash the floor by not using a towel when you get out." And so on.
I wasn't sure Child No. 2 would get it. This despite the thrilled fascination that Child No. 1 (and all other children who have entered my house) have shown this little gem:
and the one she took home from the library the following week:
But still, would Child No. 2, who is only 7 and not quite as...diabolical as Child No. 1, get the joke?
Well, yes. And by that I mean, really yes. YES. She read it over and over, just like Child No. 1 with How to Bug Your Parents. She read it through dinner, she read it with her playmate, they read it aloud to each other. They laughed at the parents' boring clothes, their wet bathroom floor, their being asked over and over for a puppy. Later that night, when she was in the bathtub, she whispered, "Those kids were pretty mean, right?" with a big, happy smile.
"Well," I said, "not exactly—"
"Yeah, mean," she answered herself ruminatively, ignoring me. She smiled again. I know she wasn't hatching any clear plan, it was more like she got a glimpse of a possibility: that she had power she hadn't quite fully understood before. You could see the wheels turning. It was...unsettling. But kind of cool.

What they're reading now
Child No. 1: The Eye of the Crow
Child No. 2: See above.

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