One scary mutha

I can't remember how to link from within comments but yesterday's post about over-controlling caregivers reminded me of Lucy Lane Clifford's 1882 "The New Mother," which I instruct you to read before bedtime:

"If we were very, very, very naughty, and wouldn't be good, what then?"

Then," said the mother sadly--and while she spoke her eyes filled with tears, and a sob almost choked her-- "then," she said, "I should have to go away and leave you, and to send home a new mother, with glass eyes and a wooden tail."

I don't need a story tonight, but thanks.

The New York Times has picked up on the story about British mums and dads disdaining fairytales. The Times reporter adds a concern of her own: "My own question about these tales — Brother Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Disney (original and adapted) — has always been: where are the mothers?" I would tell her but am afraid I would swipe my answer completely from an essay forthcoming in the March Horn Book called "The Adventures of Mommy Buzzkill" by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. Look for it.

But the person who scares me more than all the wolves and witches put together is one of the Times commenters:

As much as I love books, I’m making up stories for my four year old niece instead of reading books. It sharpens my imagination, makes bedtime more exciting for both of us and enables me to control content. Often it is interactive too–sometimes I invite my niece to make up new characters or decide on the ending.

I think we need to challenge ourselves to rely less on existing stories in favor of homespun, age-appropriate content for our little ones.

I think I would find it very hard to sleep with that person in my house.

Practicing for grandchildren

Mads seemed content and Julia politely waiting until we got to something with princesses in it.

This made me go all teary

Watch the clip.

Oh, Santa, Please, Please, Please!

I told you Martha and I were writing a book, but apparently somebody, um, beat us to it. More than a century ago.

Phone Call to the Past

Pursuant to my recent post about sequels, I see from A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy that not only are Ellen Emerson White's old books about The President's Daughter being republished, she's rewriting them to bring them in line with the most recent book, Long May She Reign, which is set in the present day but picks up the action from the end of the last book, Long Live the Queen.

Phew. If only they could do this with the old Magic Attic books, which apparently invite readers to join a fan club by calling an 800 number which time and fate have transformed into a phone sex line. And I wonder what's happened to 537-3331, Amy's phone number in I Am the Cheese. If you figured out the area code you could find yourself talking to "Amy's father," aka Robert Cormier. Or so I was told.

Snuggle Up

Claire has compiled a list of recommended bedtime stories perfect for these cooling nights. Allow me to add one--Jonathan Bean's At Night (FSG), which received a starred review from Jennifer Brabander in the September/October issue but whose perfection I only realized when I read it aloud in Vermont last week.