Took my little DCs to local bookshop for the stoytime on Sunday. Nice of them to do and its free so I shouldnt grumble (but of course I will).
Was hoping for something that would capture DCs imaginations.
Was a bit underwhelmed by the choice of Cinderella. It wasnt even a good Cinderella. It was bland and meh and had lines like 'the 2nd fairy wished the baby be clever just like the King, the 3rd Fairy wished the baby to be graceful just like the Queen' Of course it ended with 'They got married and lived happily ever after hurray'.
Now its not like I think my boys will be damaged by this story or anything dramatic. I just thought we had moved on a bit. I obviously was in the minority because one of the mums said how pleased she was the fairy story was 'child friendly' not like those horrible scarey ones. Fair enough, her opinion but dont kids like a bit of gore anymore?
I had my older kids in the early 90s and lived in the People's Republic of Islington at the time. I suppose I got used to the retelling of fairy stories in the 'Cinderella became a motorbike mechanic and escaped her paternalistic dictators who sought to oppress her and bind her in the chains of misogeny for ever after........' sort of vein.
I loved all that and my kids seemed to lap it up too. They had tons of books and most of them were isho based. Poor buggers, one of their favourites was a picture book called 'Slaves at 10 years old' . I am sure they were yearning for a Ninja Turtles Annual .
There are some fab books out there. I like the old fashioned ones too (just bought The Tiger who Came to Tea for DS2). Surely they couldve come up with something better than a pink bound, glitter strewn, yawn fest of Simperella Cinderella?
Not that I would picket the bookshop or anything. Far to lazy arsed mellow these days.
Maybe just hankering for my more radical [relative] youth?