Warning Labels

Mia's preschool just started a program called Raising a Reader. It's neat. It's like the library coming to you. Every week the kids get a book bag with 4 books. They keep them for a week, take them back and exchange it for a new bag with new books. Great program.

For the past year or so, Mia has been getting extremely emotional with movies and stories, often with good reason. She cries when Mufasa dies in Lion King. She cries when Mr. Frederickson's house floats away in UP. She cries when Tinkerbell breaks the moonstone. At my mom's house a few days ago, she dropped a marble in the pool and was hysterical until her daddy fished it out with the pool net. Needless to say, she is becoming very sensitive.

Well this week's Raising a Reader bag should have a warning label, "CAUTION: MAY CAUSE UNCONTROLLABLE SOBBING!"

The first book, Giving Thanks: A Native American Good Morning Message was just fine.

The second one, My Lucky Day, was getting a little risky for tears. It's about a wolf trying to eat a pig. The end of the story was pretty cute but Mia was very concerned about the pig's welfare and was a little nervous throughout the story. (This is probably a good time to mention that her favorite toy is a stuffed pig)

The third book, The Snowman, was great until the very last page...where he melts! I should have seen that one coming. Poor Mia was fighting back tears as she asked, "he can build another one, right?" I assured her he could and quickly suggested moving on to the 4th book to get her mind off the sad story.

The last book, Mama, was the worst of all! It's a true story about a baby hippo named Owen who loses his mother in a Tsunami. He is rescued and taken to a wildlife sanctuary where he adopts a tortoise as his mother. Mia was beside herself. She cried and cried and was completely inconsolable. I looked up the real Owen on the internet so she could see pictures of him and see how happy he is with his turtle mama. She just kept crying and saying that she she would be so sad to lose me and she didn't want a new mama. I could not detach her from my side. She cried the rest of the evening and came and got into bed with me twice in the middle of the night!

I may need to preview the books from now on!