Kid's books and grammar

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by ApK

These are books I got for my kid....my kid's books. (hey, worth a shot.)


Shouldn't that be "Romeo, Romeo, why'd you gotta be Romeo?"

ApK

Heh. Probably but "Where y'at?" is not a question so much as a typical (and iconic) greeting in these parts so I really wanted to use it.

[Native]

I constantly victimize small people within my influence with discrete grammatical correction, but I can't see censoring Junie B. Jones - figger kids brung up proper is smart enough to tell the difference between humor and grammar. Depends on the age I guess. I dunno.

Quote:
Originally Posted by queentess
I have a coworker who says things like, "We was going to" and "I haven't saw him today". I do NOT want my child learning to speak like that.

I'm new here and kind of surprised this comes up in mixed company, but anyway, shouldn't "cow-orker" be hyphenated?

[self-promotion removed by moderator]

[speakingtohe]

“Me and you will be partners.”

And then:

"Then Miss Stephanie says that me and Addie Jokobeck will be doing the country of France."

And then two different characters:

“Only me and Antonio say it like this—Meh-i-co. I might even take a trip there with him.”
“Me and Hailey say France like France,” Addie says.

This kind of grammatical mistake is common in reality. Still I really doubt that it adds to the child's reading pleasure to see it in print.
The author and editors probably are not too bright. They did get the book listed but not exactly making a profit.

I applaud the fact that you actually read the book and are concerned.

Helen

[purple_fishy]

My daughter (7) has recently started reading the Junie B. Jones books. She was introduced to them at school, the library has the entire collection and her teacher had several copies in her classroom. However, my daughter is able to pick out the bad grammar and inappropriate words (we don't use the words stupid or dumb at home) and knows that even though the characters in the book speak that way, that there is a correct way of saying it (or other words we can use instead of stupid/dumb etc). One day we were reading the book together and she could tell I was getting annoyed with the errors and her response was "Mama, she is in kindergarten. Kindergarten kids talk like that sometimes."

Because she is able to understand that the reason Junie uses incorrect grammar is her age and because she knows the correct way to say things, I don't mind if she reads the books.

[speakingtohe]

Children reading books is a good thing.
Inapropriate grammer choice and slang usage is possibly more influenced by parents, peer groups and other media (Music,TV, Movies).
Pretty good odds that a well treated child will grow up speaking (and probably thinking) similarly to those she is closest to in spite of Junie B. et al

[jrlewis]

As a parent (and an English major), I prefer to give my daughter books with proper writing as well as meaningful content. She'll learn how to misbehave and misspeak from lots of people and places in life, so her books should be teaching her as well as entertaining her.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by jrlewis

As a parent (and an English major), I prefer to give my daughter books with proper writing as well as meaningful content. She'll learn how to misbehave and misspeak from lots of people and places in life, so her books should be teaching her as well as entertaining her.

That's exactly my feeling as well. I don't go around correcting all his friends and classmates (well, much) and I want to hold up some good examples while he's learning. I try to set a good example myself, but even as dad, I'm just one voice in the chorus of what is shaping his neural net.
And I ain't sure how good I talks always neither.

As I start seeing him self-correct and discriminate more, like purple_fishy's kid does, I'm sure it'll bother me less.

ApK