We'll see if this review goes through on Amazon. But I'll just post this here as a warning to other parents or caregivers of children.
Yes, it was posted.It's my review of a children's book called,
How to Be a Hero Hardcover by Florence Parry Heide:
I'm a nanny and I'm always looking for books for my kids. I read this in a bookstore today and was so surprised and disappointed.
SPOILER ALERT:
It was a promising start. Gideon is a little boy who admires heroes and wants to be one. But the lesson taught here is that heroes don't have to really do anything to earn that title. You just have to be in the right place at the right time.
The worst part is the last portion. He's in the grocery store and a woman holding a baby slips on an apple or something and the baby goes flying. Another person catches the baby. She's the real hero here! But the focus is still on Gideon. He does not see the almost accident or the other person saving the baby. Instead, the focus is on the fact that he wins a prize for being the XYZ number customer! So the person who actually DID something heroic (though I think that simply doing the right thing is not necessarily "heroic") gets zero credit and he's the hero, simply by chance.
What an awful lesson to teach kids. Not only does it not inspire a child to excel and strive to be a better person, but it also takes away from those who do aspire and strive to be better! Not only is heroism just a matter of being in the right place at the right time, but even if you DO something heroic like catching a falling baby, no one will care. Even worse, the person who happens to be just standing there doing nothing but "in the right place at the right time" gets more credit and is more of a hero than the person who actually DID something worthwhile, like saving a baby's life.
Horrible! I actually had to read the last few pages a second time, just to be sure I was reading it correctly!
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
veritas_poet
