I bought this great old book for Lydia at a consignment sale. It looked like some old books I had as a kid that were my mom’s as a kid. It’s hard for me to pass up any book much less an old book.
I was so excited because it was a collection of stories. And that usually means a few fairy tales, a true to life story and maybe some poems. Plus, it’s called the BEST in Children’s Books. So, it’s go to have some classic stories in it, right?
One day at naptime I decided to give this book a go. I flipped through it, looking for the shortest story and found a poem. It had lots of pictures and looked fun. And it was. For about two stanzas. Then it started getting…gruesome.
It’s about an old lady who can’t get her pig to jump over a gate. She asks a dog to bite her pig and then asks a stick to beat the dog because the dog won’t bite the pig. This keeps going until she gets to a butcher. She asks a butcher to kill an ox. He won’t do it. So, she asks a rope to HANG THE BUTCHER!
Are you believing this?!
So, I’m changing the words around and skipping entire verses so I can see how it ends without scarring Lydia for life. At least no one obeys the old lady. Uh…until the last verse. Now, check out this illustration:
Is that the most morbid thing you’ve ever seen? *shudder* Who thought this was the BEST in Children’s literature?!
So, needless to say, we haven’t picked this book up again. And I probably won’t be buying Lydia any more old books for Christmas this year!
(hey, if you do need a good Holiday gift guide,
my friend, Jo-Lynne at Musings of a Housewife
has created a fabu one that includes some awesome giveaways!)
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