What to do?
I bought a big set of Roald Dahl books at Costco last year. Erik is finally at a point where he can listen for a sustained period of time, so I started reading a couple of chapters a night. We did Charlie and the Chocolate Factory first. I know it is a fun book, but it was making me uncomfortable. It is extremely anti-fat, an attitude I don’t want to share with my son. In the book it is really easy to tell if someone is bad. If they are fat they are greedy and nasty. Guaranteed.
He loved the book and I tried to have a little conversation about fat people not being evil, which did not seem to break the surface of Erik’s brain.
Next up, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. I don’t think I’ve ever read it (or most of Dahl’s books, because I never found them particularly enchanting as a child).
Holy racism batman! Erik wants to continue reading it, but I think the book is going to have to get “lost” and we’ll move on to the set of Beverly Cleary books I have stashed in the closet. Dahl certainly had some opinions. And they were mostly nasty.
Are his other books like this as well?
Amy said,
July 3, 2012 @ 11:29 am
That’s good to know. I bought Maddy some Dahl books (I never read them as a child) I guess I should pre-read first, huh? We’ve been reading through the Ramona series….those are fun.