Dr. Seuss and other classic, older books

[kelseybelsey]

Why is he killing the cow? If it is for food, then I think you are over thinking it. If he is just killing a cow for fun, then I think you have a weird book.

[vanillacourage]

I don't remember those words in Dr Suess....but, if there were books that I had to change words or plot lines I think those books would get "lost" somehow.

[treedimensional]

How does a sentence read when you leave out one of the words? How would it make any sense?

[GailGoldie]

i have changed words - to avoid words that we don't like our kids saying... like "hate", in one of the Llama Llama books- I change it to "doesn't like that book".

i can't think of any seuss books that i've changed words in- but in general, I'm not a huge fan of them until age 5-6.

[joenali]

No. Think of it as a good opportunity to talk about what words mean.

[CallingAllAngels]

I change words sometimes, especially hate. H does it more often than I do. He sings, "I don't know why she swallowed the fly. Perhaps she'll pass away." He has issues.

We recently read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I was a little uncomfortable with the talk of Augustus Gloop being enormously fat, but I didn't change it.

[sillygoosegirl]

Dec 30, 2012 10:24:00 GMT -5 CallingAllAngels said:

I change words sometimes, especially hate. H does it more often than I do. He sings, "I don't know why she swallowed the fly. Perhaps she'll pass away." He has issues.

We recently read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I was a little uncomfortable with the talk of Augustus Gloop being enormously fat, but I didn't change it.

But, but, rhythm and rhyming!!

[Deleted]

Dec 30, 2012 10:02:11 GMT -5 joenali said:

No. Think of it as a good opportunity to talk about what words mean.

I agree. Reading creates teachable moments and by changing words that make us uncomfortable we are missing these opportunities with our children. They will hear the words "hate" and "fat", that cannot be prevented. Reading has led to some very good talks related to things that would not come up otherwise.

[mx27]

what's wrong with fat?

[Deleted]

Rhyme and rhythm are actually important. They encourage repetition and memorization which are fundamentals in learning to read. That's why we learn sound groups first - at, cat, sat, rat.

Even if this wasn't true, I wouldn't change words. Either use them to spark discussion or don't buy the book.

[auntie]

Dec 30, 2012 10:02:11 GMT -5 joenali said:

No. Think of it as a good opportunity to talk about what words mean.

This.

If the book contains words I don't want to explain yet, I don't bring it home.

Otherwise it's an ages and stages sort of thing and a chance to put a book into the context of the time it was written assuming the child is old enough. I read to DS nightly until he was going into high school. The last book I read to him was Tom Sawyer- I read it as written and he learned a lot about history and changing societal norms. My MIL's BFF gave him a copy of Little Black Sambo, we skipped that one because he was too young for the discussion when he would have enjoyed the story.

DS did prefer to substitute "Sir Topham Hatt" for "the fat controller" in the British versions of his Thomas books. His choice not mine.