Horton Hatches a Nightmare

Millie's imagination these days is on fire. She narrates her life too- She'll say "What is that she muttered?" Acting out the stories during the day time is lots of fun. With that in mind, one must be very careful about what stories you share with a 2 year old.

Recently a well meaning soul gave Millie the book Horton Hatches the Egg. Millie's well meaning parents read her the story. It's about an elephant and it's by Dr. Seuss, sounds innocent enough, right? Well, let me tell ya-- it's actually a pretty grim tale. This mommy bird gets tired of sitting around on her egg so she tricks Horton into sitting on it for her. Then she goes to Palm Beach and never comes back because Palm Beach is so fun. This would be sketchy theme #1- Mommy takes off and never comes back because watching the kid is boring. Ok, moving on- Horton, poor Horton, sits on this egg through rain, sleet and snow waiting for the mommy to return and she never does. Sketchy theme #2- Then these HUNTERS with GUNS spy Horton sitting there. They think- oh great, let's shoot the elephant and point their guns. Horton braces himself to be shot but refuses to leave the egg (this is really all in the story!). The hunters change their mind and decide that the elephant is such a spectacle that they'll kidnap him and take him to the circus and charge tickets to see him. The circus travels to Palm Beach where the mommy bird decides to check out the tent and runs into Horton where a fight over the egg ensues. Eventually the egg hatches and horton and the elephant-bird are free to leave and live happily ever after.

It's hard to stop the story once it's started. Reading it was like being on a runaway truck. There's really no amount of rhyme that makes it ok. After we finished, I thought it wasn't much of a pick me up so I put it away. Unfortunately her daddy found it and read it to her once as well before he came to the same conclusion.

Later that night as everyone was sound asleep...

Millie: The passengers (girl loves her trains) are coming to SHOOT ME! THEY ARE COMING TO SHOOT ME!

I rushed into her bedroom. She sat right up and reached for me. Her cheeks were wet with tears.

Millie: They are coming to shoot me with their guns and I told them, (sob) No I DON'T WANT THAT!

I wiped her tears and hugged her tight. She couldn't settle down. She came back to our bed for the rest of the night. For the next 2 nights she had similar nightmares. And during the day she talked about people pointing guns. It's enough to make your blood run cold. Needless to say that book has been removed from the library. I don't know if it's good at any age- really, at what point is it good to introduce a kid to stories about parental abandonment and guns? No thanks. I feel awful- I can't take that back now. Thanks Dr. Seuss for introducing my kid to guns. What's up with that?

Epilogue: Yesterday she woke up talking about Thumbelina and butterflies "Flapping their flappy wings." Ahh, that's better. Hopefully we're out of the dark for now.