kids' books - SEARCH and DESTROY

Oh I hate those too. But not as much as I hate Pete the Cat books. I can't understand the popularity of these things at all.

you aren't supposed to like kids books. your kids are supposed to like them.

my 4yo for a book of fairy tales and she asked me to read her hansel and gretl which i did and even tho i knew how much disturbing material was in it i was still a little taken aback. the wife is frank about wanting to ditch her kids in the forest (and we had an interesting conversation about why she isn't called their mother but her husband is called their father), the dad resists but ultimately she nags him into essentially abandoning his children for death. of course the witch tries to cannibalize both of the children, not to mention that the entire story takes place against a background of terrible deprivation + acute poverty. but i've read scholars who believe that the gruesomeness was necessary (bettelheim particularly iirc) for kids to process complicated details about the world and themselves. and my daughter loved it so much she wanted me to immediately read it again (despite it being a fairly lengthy story). she had a lot of questions too and she found the cannibalism elements hilarious. she also noted without my prodding that the witch was obviously the wife from the beginning and i kvelled bc i agree that it is the subtext - psychologically if not literally attributable to the text - and i think it was a v astute observation.

then we read puss and boots and i think we both found it significantly less stimulating

what no "Jew in the Thorns"

alas this version of collected stories (not just grimm) did not include it

Never realised that about the witch, now feel foolish

https://www.amazon.com/Night-Gargoyles-Eve-Bunting/dp/0395968879/

My new favorite one to read.