Occasionally at Speakaboos we get a few complaints from people who object to the “violent” or “scary” content of some of our stories (the trials and tribulations of “Little Red Riding Hood” are well-known and well-documented). And yes, I would agree that a story like our original “Billy and the Witch” (it features a witch and a very, very mean cat) is probably not for every 3-5 year old.
But an article by Liza Featherstone on Babble.com this week questioned whether or not modern kids’ media tries too hard to protect young children from violent, scary or sad stories.
The article argues that parents (and children’s media) today are far more concerned than parents of yesteryear about “messing up” their kids, and this concern has led to the proliferation of more nice, safe, uncontroversial books and stories, and also the re-envisioning of many well-known stories.
I tend to agree with Featherstone’s well-researched argument that a little bit of violence or negative emotion is not going to ruin a child. After all, just because many of us can remember the scene where Bambi’s mother dies as a traumatic experience does not mean that we are any worse off because of it.
Of course, the majority of stories on Speakaboos.com are nice, fun, happy, and pretty much very safe and sanitary. And we love the fact that Arthur has become so popular simply by featuring stories that relate to everyday life.
However, we are dedicated to featuring a wide variety of stories, both old and new, happy and sad, for caretakers to choose from.
At Speakaboos we believe that kids should learn that a story is just a story, and hopefully learn to appreciate it as such.
Featherstone writes about how she told her 3-year old son Ivan a version of “The Three Little Pigs” where nobody dies, but he prefers the 1988 Golden Books version with a body count of three. What’s great about this isn’t that kids enjoy violence or scariness, but rather, that now Ivan knows that there is more than one way to tell a story.
So the moral of the story is, a little bit of scariness or violence isn’t going to mess up your child, especially if it helps your child understand the difference between fantasy and reality.
With that in mind, if you think your child can handle a little bit of unpleasantness, feel free to enjoy Tim Daly’s reading of “Little Red Riding Hood,” where the big bad wolf gets cut open with a pair of scissors, or Mark Thompson’s version of Oscar Wilde’s heartbreaking story “The Nightingale and the Rose” (spoiler alert: the nightingale dies at the end), or our upcoming release of Judy Tenuta’s retelling of “The Three Little Pigs” (spoilers: pigs die, and it’s hilarious!).
