Is this an inappropriate book for a 4yo?

[GreenCereal]

My mum has sent this for DS’s 4th birthday. It says on the front cover it is a road safety story, and is called the Rascally Hedgehog - a young hedgehog called Timmy keeps crossing the road to meet up with friends at nighttime. I’ve attached the last two pages where DH and I thought wtf?

I called mum to ask if she’d actually read it, and she said she thought it was a good book and I could just change the ending if I didn’t like it. Nevermind that DD7 usually reads to DS and I probably wouldn’t show it to her either?

AIBU or am I being too precious?

That is hilarious.....in my adult brain....in my 4 year old brain I would be very upset that Timmy was brown bread!

At least Timmy isn’t too bashed up …think I would just say poor Timmy ‘hurting a lot ‘to a four year old !

Also SIL sent one which was all about a sheep that is scared at night, because DS2 was scared of things at night. The bloody book was useless because it introduced the idea of shadows and sounds outside actually being monsters, and had no useful resolution, just "Sheep decided he wasn't scared any more. The end!"

It's made me crack up! Is it meant to be one of those kid's books for adults, like Go The Fuck To Sleep?

Show him how we learned.

Teaching the fragility of life through the medium of cartoon hedgehogs was not something I was ready for.

I don't think it's part

There will be plenty of books in nursery with death in them so I don't think that in itself is inappropriate.

😂

In your Mums defence I can honestly say I never read a book before giving it to my Grandchild. I generally have a quick look at pics and text and then make the decision to buy.

I really want to know what happened leading up to Timmy’s death!

MIL had a tortoise called Paul. That’s definitely worse than a hedgehog named Timmy.😂

Meh, I have a 4 year old and this would be fine. We are constantly finding dead animals, bones and skeletons (animals not human) in our fields. We love a bit of guess the animal from it remains game.

Properly hilarious thread, thanks OP.

No way I'd give that to a child! Even my 8yo would be upset.

Definitely self published and shite. Into the bin!

I wonder if the author is the Mumsnetter who described hedgehogs as "spiky hate potatoes" 😂 ?

All the kids in mum's street saw her rescue an underweight hedgehog one year (she was involved in the local wildlife rescue and found the hedgehog in their street so knew what to do). The crowd of kids asked her what she was doing - she told them and asked what she should call him. The suggestions were, Spike, Spike, Spike, Max, Spike and Spike. So she called him Spikey Max, the Spikey part was dropped sharpish and he was known as Max. This would have been 30 years ago and we still call all hedgehogs Max.

Oh, I think this author could have a go at it...

"Santa was completely naked. How RUDE. Timmy should have listened to his dad about old naked men. Too BAD. That is NOT what Timmy wanted for Christmas"

Heartwarming but with a strong anti naked old guy message. 😂

Sounds shit and not jolly at all for a bday present.

That's hilarious . Made me laugh our loud. I would definitely read that go a four year old!! Like a previous poster I think I might change the emphasis each time, and can totally imagine him waiting for the punchline to laugh together.

I don’t want to break copyright, but here’s the run-in with his dad the previous night.

Ha! Made me laugh! I didn't expect it

Well Mr. Prickle kind of sounds like a prick, tbh...

My 13 year old thinks it’s hilarious.

’what a SHAME’ is my favourite bit.

The moustache is a bit much.

The guilty rabbit in the background is clearly involved in Timmy's demise.

His dad reminds me of Dennis Nilsen

It’s very funny but totally inappropriate

It’s the kind of thing that would make a lot of kids giggle. I wouldn’t have thought twice about giving it to mine.