Book Review - The grey Grey Cloud by Manjula Naraynan

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The grey Grey Cloud by Manjula Naraynan brings one question to my mind. Why do we lie to our children? Let me be clear, I fully believe in fairy tales and the amazement of imagination as a matter of fact I have two fairy tattoos on my back along with the word Believe. But there is a big difference between make believe and flat out lies.
Let's say you are a grey cloud that cries when there is a thunderstorm because, well lets all be honest thunderstorms can be scary even as an adult. So it is totally understandable that a baby cloud or child would be frightened when the wind is blowing and the rain is coming down. My first reaction to make my son feel better is to explain that the rain comes down to clean the Earth and the lightning strikes because there is a lot of electricity built up in the clouds that has to go somewhere and the thunder is the noise that the lightning makes when it strikes. It is NOT to tell him that there are wicked witches and goblins outside that can only be seen when the clouds make it dark outside!! And that the rain and wind and lightning and thunder are all to help scare away the Witches and Goblins that live outside all the time that we just can't see! What the Hell? Now instead of being comforted and educated the kids who read this book are afraid there are Witches and Goblins outside when it rains.
Why oh God Why can't we just tell them the truth? What would be so bad about the same silver fairy teaching the same grey cloud about why rain really comes down and what really causes lightning? It's one thing to make believe but this book just flat out lies to little kids and I do not support that. Children need magic in their lives but isn't nature magical enough?