A review by simonmee
Boogie Bear by Tony Ross, David Walliams
2.0
The POLAR BEAR is DIFFERENT from the BROWN BEARS. BUT we can ACCEPT that (and like) her for who she is.
Do we need to point the metaphorical finger and say YOU are DIFFERENT but that is OK, congratulating ourselves for being so tolerant? What is "different" these days? We live in increasingly multicultural and liberal societies where what is neither easy nor desirable to identify what is NORMAL.
I am not trying to claim "not to see colour" or similar. I hope instead my point is that maybe, rather than categorizing people and then comparing them to (somehow identifiable) dominant groups, we instead accept that we exist on an infinite number of points on an infinite series of spectrums where, while characteristics may be shared within groups, there are also many many distinctions. Sure, there are shared experiences within roughly defined groups, but I feel like this book was a bit more simplistic than that.
I realise this sounds like a painful overreading of a children's book about accepting people who may not be the same as us, but this book feels clunky and anachronistic in making the point. There are some very very good children book's authors presently, so I feel we can afford be a bit more critical.
For all that, the above isn't why I rate it so low, as my point of view is pretty contestable. My daughter said she doesn't like the book and finds it scary. I have to agree, it is rather confrontational with violent themes, all in the name of "good humour."
Do we need to point the metaphorical finger and say YOU are DIFFERENT but that is OK, congratulating ourselves for being so tolerant? What is "different" these days? We live in increasingly multicultural and liberal societies where what is neither easy nor desirable to identify what is NORMAL.
I am not trying to claim "not to see colour" or similar. I hope instead my point is that maybe, rather than categorizing people and then comparing them to (somehow identifiable) dominant groups, we instead accept that we exist on an infinite number of points on an infinite series of spectrums where, while characteristics may be shared within groups, there are also many many distinctions. Sure, there are shared experiences within roughly defined groups, but I feel like this book was a bit more simplistic than that.
I realise this sounds like a painful overreading of a children's book about accepting people who may not be the same as us, but this book feels clunky and anachronistic in making the point. There are some very very good children book's authors presently, so I feel we can afford be a bit more critical.
For all that, the above isn't why I rate it so low, as my point of view is pretty contestable. My daughter said she doesn't like the book and finds it scary. I have to agree, it is rather confrontational with violent themes, all in the name of "good humour."