Tuesday, March 15, 2011

What were you thinking?

Seriously.

In my honest opinion, there are a lot of things to be considered when writing a book, especially when it is meant for children. Specifically, ABC picture books.

Here's what happened. I was reading one of the books (but this one is the Bahasa and English version) with my cousin's son, Isyraf (4 y.o). Approaching the letter Y, Isyraf spontaneously said "Eeee, tak malu, kencing berdiri". So I was like "what?". Then only I noticed THIS.


If the overall content of the book is about/describing human body parts, then by all means, it is totally fine. But I guess the word Penis is guised in so many terms, the same goes as Zakar in Bahasa. It's never wrong to expose them to the actual word, but what Isyraf said (eee, tak malu kencing berdiri) is a proof that the intended objective has not been met. Instead of identifying the picture as penis/zakar, he focused on the action. Which is not wrong, I would say. Really, I did not know how to respond. But eventually I said "Ini Zakar *while pointing at the arrow*". And I can't believe it myself, how I sounded like a pervert Aunt. Haha. And I quickly asked him to give me another book to read.

Den asked me to take a picture of the publisher but somehow it's not in the camera. Too bad. I would advise them to revise the contents. The thing is that, ABC books are not only for children to learn the letters but also help them to read. Thematic books (books with theme) which may accommodate all alphabets including (q,x,z) would be more desirable. Contents should also be more engaging. The items included should be those which children can relate to and easily available so that the letters and words can be reinforced. That way, they'll learn better.

Moral of the story: Take your time to really look at the contents of the book before buying them.

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Header image by sabrinaeras @ Flickr