What childhood books do you think are damaging?

“Damaging” in my opinion or people’s opinion? Because the examples you show us are from people who are so stuck in their own self-righteous head they make a mountain out of a molehill.

“damaging”. Hah!
Wait ‘til you read the Struwwelpeter.

Your personal opinion.

I think books dealing with too much teenage angst can be very damaging, especially when there’s no resolution and/or the child is too young to even have heard of the themes. Cutting, for example, or anorexia. These topics could really confuse an otherwise happy nine-year-old.

Other potentially damaging book would be those that uphold antiquated roles. I read a lot of my grandma’s childhood books when I was quite young. While most were lovely and wholesome adventures, a couple introduced me to ridiculous ideas such as men being the head of the family. I think I’d try to filter for books like this, and stick with less preachy ones.

In Germany, there is some discussion about a national favourite: Astrid Lindgren, Swedish author of books like “Pippi Longstocking”. She was extremely progressive and a lifelong advocate for children, but there are some slurs in her books – Pippi Longstocking’s dad is a celebrated “Negro King”. That has now been changed to “Caribbean King”, so kids can still enjoy these amazing stories. Banning them would have been tragic, and it definitely would have been in this kind and considerate author’s interest to update the language.

Some of my grandfathers comic books scared the hell out of me, when I was a child.

I can’t say. When I was a kid, about all I read were sports biographies, or stories of frontiersmen or wild west lawmen. Bunch of hokum for the most part, but I don’t see how Daniel Boone killing a bear, or Wyatt Earp chasing outlaws, could have been harmful to me, or society. And Mickey Mantle and the NY Yankees had it going on.

@longgone Your example of changing the language in Pippi Longstocking is something I had not thought of. I have been against changing words in books in the US that are about the South during slavery and segregation. Your example of Pippi I am in favor of changing the language.

@JLeslie ok, thanks for your clarification. I’m not in the habit of judging books, because I believe every book has their own merit, as long as they don’t force people into a certain way of thinking. That being said, recently I started to see problems in a lot of literature works that were taught to me as a child. This is an example.

There are some more works that are problematic to me. If you are interested, feel free to PM me, because I can’t talk about them right here, publicly. I’m afraid talking about them publicly could land me in a rather unpleasant place…

I don’t view books as “damaging in and of themselves. But many old books are inappropriate for their continuation of raciist structures.

Two books I read when young come to mind: Little Black Sambo, which was not about African Americans but was still racist. (It was about Asian Indians). The other that came to mind was Peck’s Bad Boy which was a collection of late 19th century serialized stories about a boy who was always getting into mischief. I enjoyed both of these books because of the stories despite the racist background. But well over 50 years later I would never keep a copy in my home nor would I recommend either to anyone.

@zenvelo You know what? I’m actually glad that people in the US are taking another look at books and have the courage to critique the inappropriate aspects of older books as something that belonged to the old society. In my country old books are almost always the gospel and we aren’t supposed to criticize them, no matter how problematic some of them can be.

@ragingloli We read Struwelpeter as children as a joke but it is a horrible book.

My Little Campf

The Wizard of Oz book was very creepy to me when I was about 7.

Most of the history text books now produced in Texas.

Hopefully Fun with Fire, and Games with Guns will never be published. ;-o

People read books??? I thought they were all too hung up in their electronic devices.
(IMO, TV is MUCH MORE “damaging.”)

Yeah, I think it’s the video and music formats people ought to be concerned with, not books. I’m concerned about the ones that are loaded with corporate messages and indoctrination into believing in the sick and shaming cultural messages about body image, wealth and status, anti-intelligence, excessive extroversion, short attention span, commercialization of everything, brand and product fetishization, cultivating desire for “the latest thing” whatever-the-F*&# that currently is, corporate culture, xenophobia about non-mainstream-American culture, idealizing some perverse concept of “normal”, dehumanization, normalization of greed and sociopathy, normalization of lying scumbag politicians, normalization of insano-Christianity, normalization of excessive police violence, etc.

My Dad’s wife once sent a book to my 13 year old daughter. I paged through it and to my horror it was about a young student having sex with her teacher. It was graphic. Porn graphic.
I called her to protest. She insisted that it just depicted the real world. She was unrepentant.
WTAF?
Lucky she never had kids of her own.

I watched the original Robocop as a child, and can only recommend it.

Fun With Dick and Jane.
A series of books when I was in grade school.

Personally, I’m always delighted to see children reading and I’m far more concerned about children becoming addicted to “screens” at a young age (and turning into rabid little monsters when you try and take their iPad away. You should see some of the intentionally addictive videos kids watch on YouTube) than I am about them reading a book that might have something old-fashioned in it. If you’re really concerned, then talk to your children about the themes in the book and why they might be outmoded or problematic. (But that kind of leads back to my first point; parents would rather just park their children in front of a TV or an iPad and not actually talk to them or read to them). I’m also all for parents trying to move outside the established canon of children’s literature; there are a lot of great new books out there that challenge some of the tired tropes and stereotypes.

I’ll second @Desmosthenes point.
Books are rather timeless and an education in themselves on history -of the time, race, gender roles, etc…

When I was around 12 or so my family would buy me boxes of books of all kinds and I’d read them all avidly. Some were not appropriate, some were textbooks way over my head, but I read them anyway. It helped me in so many ways that I don’t feel that any books should actually be banned or forbidden, unless they aren’t age-appropriate.

(Just got done reading the “My Side of the Mountian” trilogy. I bought the set for my 9 year old granddaughter.)

When my kids were that age we got books from the library or the book shop and I don’t remembering coming across any I would call damaging or harmful. Some raised topics that required explanation but that was part of their education.

It is worth bearing in mind what GK Chesterton said:

“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”

@flutherother Great quote!

I devoured Tom Sawyer and Kiplings Just So Stories. Both have the N word in them.

Huck Finn has that too. But Twain and Kipling were 19th Century authors. We cant expect to wave some kind of wand and make 19th Century writers have 21st Century attitudes. Or change their writings. Good or bad, that’s the way they were.

I don’t think kids need much if any censorship of bad past human behavior. I studied books with photos of dead bodies and trench warfare in World War One, and US bomb attacks on cities during World War Two, and about Nazis, the Holocaust, and Japanese atrocities and prison camps, and so on, starting when I was about five years old or so. They made strong impressions on me about the horrible realities of war… all of which I’d say was useful input. Getting a censored version would have left out much of that impact and loaded me with false ideas about the past.

Meanwhile in Texas:
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/social-justice/texas-senate-votes-to-remove-required-lessons-on-civil-rights

@ragingloli That’s the kind of thing I meant in my post. Disgusting!!

I do have to say here that if I were from an oppressed minority depicted in a bigoted way in a children’s book, I might have objections to it. It can be a white privilege perspective to say that no books are damaging to children. Although I like to think that even in that case, I might discuss with the children what the stereotypes are rather than removing the book, depending on their age. I’m not sure.

@janbb I always try to think about that same thing when the topic comes up about how minorities are depicted. Not only in books, but also the Aunt Jemima pancake syrup controversy and others.

What would be our stereotype and would it bother us? Would the banker in a story have a Jewish last name? Or, own the apartment building? Would it bother me? I don’t know what other stereotypes people have of Jews. Wearing certain clothes.

It could be stereotypes of women too. Showing us as ignorant or only concerned with home and children and pleasing our husbands. I guess that bothers some women.

I remember being shocked when I saw the N word in the books. I was taught from an early age that is a derogatory word and we don’t use it. But it was part of the fibre and color of the stories and wasn’t meant in a derogatory way.

@Dutchess_III Yes, I think that’s an example of something I wouldn’t censor in classics like Huckleberry Finn but I would discuss with both Black and white children why it is a derogatory term that we never use any more.

@JLeslie I was thinking if I could remember any children’s books in which Jewish people were depicted in a bigoted way and I can’t but they might be in other cultures. I don’t know.

My grand daddy taught me that the hard way, wayyyy back. That N word was never used in my family, I never even heard it ‘till I heard one of my cousins use it. I made the mistake of calling my grand dads friend that once (the guy wasn’t around thank goodness) and my paw paw bent me over his bed and gave me a swat with his belt. Told me in no uncertain terms, “I never want to hear that word out of your mouth again, we don’t use that in my family”. A good life lesson I never forgot. We were real close and his word was Gospel to me. : )

Well thankfully my parents didn’t need to beat me to get the.message across. Just a serious talking to did the trick.

@Dutchess_III Well one swat with a belt is hardly a beating. And I deserved it. Frank and Naomi were my grand dads and grand mothers best friends, I had no business disrespecting them or their friends that way. Anyway I recall after my “sit down” with Paw Paw, we went on our daily walk around the block, and ended up at the drug store where he’d buy me an ice cream while he and his old WW I vet friends would chew the fat. Fun days…and no harm done.

@janbb I can’t think of any. I was just trying to imagine how I would feel about it.

One of the Seuss books that was pulled people were offended by how the Chinese men were dressed. If they showed Jewish people dressed in Chassidic garb would that bother me? I guess the Chinese dress is inaccurate for present day Mulberry Street so that’s what makes it offensive, while the ultra orthodox still dress like that in Brooklyn.

But you didn’t know you were doing anything wrong @Nomore_lockout.

That’s true I guess, but Paw Paw got me straight on that. LOL He didn’t use the term of course, but if he said racism is wrong, it’s wrong. That was all I needed to know. Like I say, I pretty much worshipped my grand dad (Paw Paw). Still do I guess, in my memory.

In 3rd grade I got mad at my friend, who was black. I hissed “Nigger!” at him and was blown away by the shock and hurt on his face. I want to cry to this day. “CLARENCE!! I AM SO SO SORRY.”
I went home and asked Mom what that meant and she explained it was a derogatory term for black people and we don’t use it
I tried to make it up to him, but I never said the words “I’m sorry.”
Crying crying crying.

@Dutchess_III Maybe you can find Clarence on social media and put your heart at ease? It may mean something to him, too.

Ditto @KNOWITALL there, Dutchy. If possible, you should do that. Not being a buttinsky, just sayin’.

I have no idea what his last name is…but I’ll look.

I’m reading all these posts and I’m thinking back to what I read when I was a kid, because I don’t have any kids now and I’m kind of out of touch with current children’s books. One of the first things I remember reading, although I know it couldn’t have been the first thing I read, was The Hobbit. And shortly after that I read the Lord of the Rings. And yes, that was around the age of 5 for The Hobbit and I think I was a bit older for the Lord of the Rings, maybe seven or eight. I love that sort of stuff and every once in awhile I start the psychoanalyze myself about why I loved it so much. Did I love fantasy because although my home life was decent, I often felt like I wanted to escape? I don’t know.
Anyway, I remember the reading the whole Little House in the Prairie series, and I really didn’t enjoy them. I’ve always liked the ideal of living out in the wilderness and having to fend for yourselves, etc. But then I was remembering that they didn’t always portray Native Americans very well. There wasn’t any out and out racism, but they were rarely portrayed positively.
And as I read more advanced things, I came to love stories about Indian tribes and about how they lived, and about people who got taken in by them because they were found when they were injured or something, and then they came to love that lifestyle and ended up never going back to their old way of life.

Like someone above said, I worry more that kids aren’t reading today. I read a study once about how much lower our children’s spans of attention are because they’re not reading nearly as much as they are watching TV or being on the computer. And that was years ago so I can’t imagine how much worse it’s gotten. Also reading really helps develop a child’s imagination. When you see everything on the screen, there’s not really much use for your imagination, but when you’re reading a book, you’re having the picture things for yourself and trying to figure out how the story is going to end up.

Overall, I think we need to be very careful not to over censor books from the past. There are definitely some that should be, but I think if we censor too much, then you lose some of the flavor from back in the day. I think if minor changes can be made sometimes, like the one mentioned for Pippi Longstocking, then that is a good thing.