poetry friday - x-rated edition!

I forgot it was Friday until I read Gotta Book today, so I'm just stealing his idea and making a search results fib:

from
far
away:
ass picture,
statue of peeing kid--
clever halloween epitaphs

As usual, I had to cheat - the first three lines were one search. Don't even ask me where "ass picture" came from... I don't wanna know.

(And shoot, I got the syllables wrong, didn't I...)

value added children's books, part II

During a conference with my son's homeschool teacher (and how's that for an oxymoron!), the subject came up of whether kids today are overprotected, oversupervised, overscheduled and tragically prevented from having solitary and kid-centered adventures, as they do in the classic children's books like The Saturdays.

No, I'm not going where you expect with this. These discussions always irritates me a little--not because I think the concerns aren't valid. But they're really only valid for a segment of the child population, primarily middle-class, suburban kids or wealthy, urban kids. I grew up poor and urban, which frankly, is a combination requiring--and seldom getting--more protection. Without dwelling on the details, being preyed upon by adults and older children was just part of growing up. I really don't worry much now about "overprotecting" my son.

So... what does this have to do with children's books? Well, it's that values thing again. Is there something instinctive in us that responds to depictions of honor, compassion, sacrifice--or did I just get lucky? Because I found in children's books the values that were blatently lacking in my everyday world, and I embraced them.