arrgh! winter reading blues

little girl (maybe 8), *handing me her winter reading log*:  I WANT ANGELINA BALLARINA BALLOON AND ANGELINA BALLARINA DVD FOR MY PRIZES

me *hiding my grin*: wow!  look at all those books you read!  well, we don't have any Angelina Ballarina prizes, but i DO have a really cool blow up guy and a KITE!  you can also look through the treasure chest and see if there is anything else you'd like to have instead!

little girl all excited grabs a kite and a blow up guy. 

mom walks up and frowns: oh, honey, i don't think you really want a kite.  you have to go OUTSIDE and RUN to use a kite.

little girl doesn't seem bothered by the prospect and holds the kite tighter.

mom *grabbing kite*: really, why don't you pick out something you can play with INSIDE and that you don't have to RUN with.

so, the kid picks out a dino-grabber instead.

*sigh* way to encourage your child to be mobile mom!

twain's new bowdlerized book...yum!

In response to:
Check out the Room for Debate in the New York Times about Huck Finn:

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/01/05/does-one-word-change-huckleberry-finn
Lots of interesting essays and comments

                                                                                                
I find it interesting that many of the more outspoken against the changes in this novel are white white white and more white.
I read Huck Finn as a very young teenager at the request of my parents, not my school. I was moved by the book, but I really didn't understand it, even after discussions with my parents. I came to the novel again as an adult and had an entirely different experience.
That I could be the same person and have two different experiences with the same book is important.
I bring this up because Paul Butler's essay from the link below resonated with me. His experience in the classroom with Huck Fin was torturous. (as was mine with Romeo and Juliet for very different reasons). I know that isn't how it was meant by Twain. But, there it is. It is how it turned out for Paul.
The point is, I could never know how painful that was for him. I am not black. My best friend in High School was black. I witnessed many, many racist, bigoted, evil responses just to his being alive. Once, when we were walking down the street together someone yelled out a car window, "hey, bitch, what're you doing walking around with that nigger?" I'm still wounded by that one single moment and I can't even imagine what it must have felt to him over and over and over. This was in Phoenix, in the 90's. Not in the deep south in the 1800's.

So, no, in the end, I don't think Twain's words should be censored, but people have every right to protest something they find offensive, hurtful, cruel or otherwise demeaning. If they want a modified version to share with their children, they have that right.
And, well, at least the original is still available to whoever may want it.
As an interesting side note, when I ran this email through spell check, the word Nigger was not recognized. At least we've come that far, eh?