Censoring old kids' books

[David]

An interesting counterpoint: a friend pointed out that not only isn't this a specifically "woke"/PC thing, but that the idea of polishing up children's books to meet modern social norms in new editions was something done routinely in the past. An example is the Hardy Boys series, which was first published from 1927 but from 1959 began appearing in new, updated editions courtesy of the daughter of the creator of the series. You can see the timeline of changes and a list of the types of modifications made here: http://www.hardyboysonline.net/content.php?page=series-canon-revisions

Here's the full list of what was changed in the first 38 volumes between 1959 and 1973:

[Skids]

If it's a book that engages kids and they enjoy it, its served its purpose.

[stui magpie]

I was reading Peter Pan to my Grandson last night and found myself having to censor it as I was reading. Only got a few pages in before I quit.

It's a 25 year old Disney book but Geezus.

First Wendy's Dad throws a wobbly because his Tie won't tie properly, blames the kids, starts yelling at them, telling them Children should be seen and not heard and they needed to all grow up, quickly.

Then when Peter is flying with Wendy and the boys to Never Never Land, Tinkerbell cracks the sads, is thinking that she hates Wendy because Peter is giving her the attention and starts plotting to kill her. This is a 7 year old kid who's experienced being abandoned and witnessed drug use and family violence, I aint reading him that as a bedtime story.

[David]

I’ve never read it, but it always seemed like a weird story to me! Couldn’t help but think the fact that Michael Jackson identified so strongly with it was a bit of a red flag too, lol.

Totally understand wanting to be sensitive about this stuff, though I must admit I often lean the other way – I tend to work on the basis that kids can handle dark themes (I was even reading Ingmar Goosebumps stories, which deal with murder and other pretty disturbing themes, when he was 5, for instance). But of course it’s easy for me to say when neither I nor Ingmar have been confronted with this stuff up close in real life.

Anyway, it sounds like you have a pretty strong sense of what he can and can’t handle; so I hope the next book is more of a success. I read Ingmar Emily Rodda’s Finders Keepers last year and he really enjoyed it – shouldn’t be too hard to dig that one up at an op shop if you don’t already have it. I find most of her books are really good for that 6–10 range, and generally aren’t too full on content-wise.

[pietillidie]

Read originals as originals; read modernised versions as modernised versions. The Christian Bible seems to do fine that way.

The Adventures of the Wishing-Chair and the Wishing Chair Again were my favourite Enid Blyton books. No wonder I've lived in so many different lands!

Of course, that was more a product of hand-me-downs from my sisters than choice, but I remember them and I don't remember plenty of others.

[stui magpie]