I have fond memories of reading them when I was younger, but as I think about introducing them to kids I have some thoughts and issues:

• The clear colonial bias - Narnia needing white British rulers to thrive.
• Colorism/Xenophobia/Racism in the Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle.

Do the benefits of a neat magical fantasy world outweigh the issues? How would you approach it?

I hope your holiday is full of love and warmth!

That's it, that's the post. My partner, her son, and her nephew have been elsewhere for Thanksgiving this weekend. Sure I could rant against Thanksgiving, but I'm just glad that everybody is actually spending time with each other for once.

I got stoned and Bluey came on, it made me really emotional. I had to put this somewhere, sent it to my partner as well. You guys should reach out to the people you love too.

I was at the library with the kiddo this weekend hunting for some stories. They're 3, for context. I'm not usually the one getting books, and it took me a little time to find books I was interest in. Found two that turned out to be fun and with some leftist points of view.

First one: "Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type" by Doreen Cronin illustrated by Betsy Lewin.

A book about cows who have a typewriter. They use that typewriter to write letters to the farmer demanding better working conditions. Its a silly book about cows on strike, light hearted but a good message about the power of collective action.

Second one: "The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet!" By Carmen Agra Deedy, illustrated by Eugene Yelchin.

A book about a noisy town where the people sing all day and night. After electing a new mayor, the mayor bans all forms of singing. Until a rooster arrives. Even after the mayor takes away everything the rooster has, the rooster refuses to stop singing. A fun book about speaking truth to power and refusing to be silenced in the face of powerful threats.

In a sea of identity affirming books, it was nice to find these. If you have any similar books feel free to leave them below.

Such a sweet sweet torture, I dont wanna be here but I cant learn with him in the same flat and the pictures remind me of what I'm missing but I also don't want them to stop.

My child wanted to watch an animated green lantern series recently so we checked it out. Of course the main character who is the human green lantern is a fighter pilot who does a bunch of sweet fighter pilot flight maneuvers in the opening sequence. I told my child that shows like this often show the military being cool and doing cool stuff, but that in real life what fighter pilots actually do is drop bombs on children. I'm only human, I also enjoy (some) military action movies, but I know it's cotton candy brain poison too.

I hate how many children's shows have pro military pro cop propaganda. How do others talk to their kids about it to inoculate them against brainworms? I usually describe the military and the cops as being like a gang of bullies - they do things to make themselves look cool but really they just exist to hurt people and take their shit.

Well I've posted a few things about my family here, I don't really have a place to post elsewhere. My step son is special needs, and as a result has been developing at a slower pace than other children. This means that he's been pretty much completely uninterested in candy until this year. We'd go trick or treating because he enjoys walking around, but he never actually did anything with the candy. He was walking around just to say hi to the neighbors. But this year, he'll actually get to enjoy the candy collecting because he cares about it this year!

Also, an update to my mutual aid post yesterday. We got the drug tests covered for court, and realized he didn't have a Halloween costume. We went to the store and got him a costume from an anime he likes for $15. We wanted to make sure he didn't feel left out. We have two happy boys ready for Halloween this year, we really appreciate the help. He's adjusting really well so far.