The Frog Prince and Other Fairy Tales

For the upteenth time, my three year old nephew brought me the book The Cat in the Hat and began to crawl in my lap.

"Really?" I asked. "This again?"

"Read," he commanded.

I sighed, and as I turned the pages, I told my own story. "So, these little white kids basically ostracize the black cat because of his unwillingness to participate in their prim and proper society. But you know what? It's the creative juices that the cat demonstrated that sparked many literary and creative movements, so in the end the little kids suck."

"BRANDI!" shrieked my mother, who had just walked in the room. "Read it right!"

"Fight the oppression, gramma," chimed in my nephew (except in his cute little voice, it sounded like "Ight the Pression").

My mother rolled her eyes and let out a heavy angry sigh.

Who knows? One day, if I have children of my own, I may stick to my guns and fill my child's bookshelves with Heather Has Two Mommies, Why Mommy Votes Democrat, and The Different Dragon (if you haven't heard of that last one, it's about a dragon who isn't mean, scary, and manly enough, and wants to play with princesses instead). Maybe I will throw all out books that I feel carry a racist, sexist, or oppressive undertone.

Or, maybe, instead, I'll say forget it. And I'll want my child to be innocent and free and grow up with the stuff I grew up with.

I shut the book, and the child scampered off with it. He came back with another. Cinderella.

"Really? Really?" I said exasperated. "Because a woman's only goal in life is to wait for a man to rescue her."

He looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Read it, Brandi."

I opened the book. Before I opened my mouth, he interrupted.

"Read it right!"

Sometimes you can't win for nothing.