Curious George's ABCs

I think I am going to weed this book from Tristan's collection, given that it portrays firefighters and mail carriers as male professions ("F is a Fireman Fighting a Fire," "M is the Mailman who brings the Mail"). (I had entertained the idea of crossing out Fireman and writing in Firefighter with a sharpie, but I just couldn't bring myself to deface a book like that, no matter the stereotypes contained within.) Some may argue that this specific stereotype would be more harmful to girls than to boys, but I think it's just as harmful for boys to grow up thinking that some professions belong only to them. Also, this board book is apparently a revised version of the 1960's edition, so it's odd that even back in the 1990's when this was show more published, they wouldn't change the text to reflect the times.

Getting rid of this book, however, makes me think of two questions:

1. Am I going to censure everything objectionable that comes our way when Tristan is growing up? Probably not, as this is neither feasable nor does it provide good opportunities for conversation and growth. Also, it goes against my instincts as a librarian. I can at most hope to control the types of things he encounters at a young age in his own home. Also, it would make me a hypocrite: many of the books and movies I love deeply have some objectionable content. Peter Pan has a stereotypical portrayal of Native Americans, and The Sound of Music's song "Sixteen Going On Seventeen" is pretty sexist. Will I keep these things from him because of their content? I don't know, but probably not. Instead, we will watch them together and then talk about the objectionable content, accounting for the views of the time period. What makes Curious George's ABCs different? Perhaps because he is too young to have a conversation with, and I don't want one of his first experiences with books to portray a stereotype.

2. If I find content in this book objectionable, should I donate it? Chances are that a lot of people, maybe even most people, would find the use of Firemen and Mailmen in this book pretty benign. And they might be right. I can certainly think of a few worse things to include in a picture book. And otherwise this is a pretty nice alphabet book with good illustrations, and who doesn't love Curious George? On the other hand, if I find it objectionable enough not to keep it in our own library, why would I want to help spread this particular stereotype further? It will fall into the hands of some other little boy or girl who might subconsciously absorb the message that only men can have these professions. But I can't bring myself to throw away an otherwise perfectly good book, and if I did end up throwing it away, then I'm one step closer to the world of Fahrenheit 451.

I am probably overthinking this, and I'm not sure why I thought it was a good idea to spend precious minutes of Tristan's naptime writing this review. But I am delirious with lack of sleep; in fact, I'm not entirely sure that what I'm writing here isn't complete gibberish that only makes sense to my addled brain. But I have been reading a lot of books about gender stereotypes in children lately and I believe that it's never too early to start combating those stereotypes. show less

This book is appropriate for Pre-K and Kindergarten children. The main character Curious George travels through the alphabet sighing each letter and giving it an example. The author capitalizes the letter being referred to. This book could be used to help students with there ABC's as well as basic reading skills

Goes over the alphabet using alliteration and a representation of each letter.
1 book

Sophia likes this book a lot