Skippyjon Jones
The next day, the local daycare, who is my storytime bread and butter, called to say they weren't going attend the morning's storytime. When 60 kids and 5 teachers fom the same daycare suddenly showed up at their regular time, I was glad that I had given Skippyjon Jones the once over.
The story is chock-full of amusing Mexican and pseudo-Mexican phrases. Like having a lot of words that end in "o" in order to rhyme with words like Skippito Friskito and bandito. For example:
Then the smallest of the small [chihuahuas] spoke up. "Why the maskito, dude?" asked Poquito Tito. "I go incognito," said Skippito.It's like a mix of Dr. Seuss and the Taco Bell commercials. I couldn't help but feel a little guilty. In the middle of my read aloud, one of the teachers admonished a talkative child by saying, "Listen to the story. It's got a lot of funny words in it." I found myself glancing around the library, hoping there wasn't anybody around who might get offended at my pathetic pronunciation of a parody of her language.
But I don't get upset at Dr. Seuss's made-up words. Once I ignore the PC devil on my shoulder, I begin to enjoy the absurd goofiness of the story.
I think we need to lighten up sometimes and realize that not everyone overanalyzes everything. A lighthearted children's book such as this can be really fun.
It called to mind recent controversey over Speedy Gonzalez who reportedly became the object of a "Save the Mouse" campaign led by some Mexican Americans who adore the character not because of his stereotypical speech, but because of his cleverness. (See also this article)
Anyway, when trying to look into the Speedy Gonzalez thing, I found this article on NPR about a character called Memín Pinguín which has also been controversial but has also been defended by many.
Carl,
Sometimes I feel that as a liberal, I have the tendency to overanalyze things, and that gets us in trouble. I have to learn to fight that urge. Wait, what's the name of your blog again?