Shouldn't you be happy that they are reading a book and leave it at that?

Okay, I've seen an article that not only got me seething but made me wonder about Nemesis's response as this does feel under her purview after all.

Apparently public libraries have had to withdraw a number of long standing childrens books after some parents complained the books were racist, blasphemous, violent or otherwise unsuitable.

So who is on this short list for warping childrens minds?

Roald Dahl was top of the list which for some stories, okay maybe they have a point with some of the stories but others no. Unless Matilda has been accused of encouraging children not to listen to authority figures.

But his books have been joined by the nutcracker and Ali Babba and the 40 thieves as too sinister or frightening for children. I would have thought the Nutcracker would have had complaints about it being confusing rather then Sinister.

And the list goes on. Tintin has been accused of racism and joining him facing this charge is Babar. That's right Babar the elephant. We apparently have racist elephants. Maybe it was a character trait that never came out in the tv cartoon.

The racism charge has apparently coming about as they are both accused of exposing children ethnic stereotypes. Tintin in his trip to the congo and Babar in meeting "savage cannibals". No comments though if it would have been fine for him to meet " perfectly nice and civil cannibals".

Babar is the only elephant to face the racism charge as two elephants, one black, one grey having a dispute were accused of being racist.

But racism wasn't the only issue on the cards. Two monsters in the unsurprisingly named "two monsters" book were accused of using aggressive language unsuitable for young ears ( and eyes obivously)

And this agressive language " Twit" and "dumbo". Which must mean these parents never let their kids watch any soap operas ( imagine the fainting if the parents watched a episode of hollyoaks).

Not even critically lauded books that have been turned into tv shows have escaped complaints as horrible histories which aims to "take the stuffiness out of history" has been accused of celebrating and trivalising violence, while another complaint about it's sister series Horrible Science feared it would encourage children to perform dangerous experiments.

Well as long as they haven't bought little johnny his own particle accelerator it shouldn't be too dangerous.

and depressingly the list keeps going with the Big ugly monster being accused of damaging childrens self esteem and Flabby Cat and Slobby Dog being accused of giving negative messages about Obesity.

So there you have it, Libraries and reading can not win. People complain that kids don't read enough and when they do, we complain about it.

Maybe it we fill the childrens sections with copies of the latest celebrities autobiographies and copies of heat. Everyone will be happy....

well asides from the people mourning the breakdown of western civilisation but no one listens much to them these days anyway.