Freedom from Blog

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Sunday, January 16, 2011

Kid Book Cringing

Welcome back, 3! While I'm mulling over Chicago politics, I have a random question. What's the most offensive kid's book you know?

We've been reading Amelia Bedelia some lately, and that gets my vote for now. If you don't remember this insanely popular series, Amelia Bedelia (they always say the whole name) is a staggeringly stupid housekeeper who misunderstands every instruction she's ever given, effectively ruining the home of her benevolent, rich employers. But as angry as they get at her, and as incapable as she is of ever learning anything, they keep her around because she bakes great pies, cookies, and cream puffs. Well, at least she's white, I think to myself. Except that, according to Wikipedia, her real life inspiration was a black African maid. And the author is a white woman from rural, heavily black, plantation country in lowland South Carolina. Can you top that?

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