Daisy and Bad Guys
Daisy is not comfortable with the idea of bad guys in books, and she almost always wants to make villainous characters good. So, for example, tonight we were reading _Dr. DeSoto Goes to Africa_, by William Stieg, and we came across the character of Honkitonk, the villainous rhesus monkey who kidnaps Dr. DeSoto. Daisy asked warily if he was nice. I explained that well, no, he wasn't very nice because he was kidnapping Dr.DeSoto and taking him away. Daisy thought about it and then said, "I think he's nice. He has a lot of good ideas."
Daisy does this a lot with "bad guys"; she revises their motives and characteristics to make them more sympathetic. She also is VERY sensitive about naughty behavior. She has told me many times that she does NOT want to see the part of The Nutcracker in which Fritz accidentally breaks the nutcracker. We have discussed this moment many times because we're going to see the ballet live this Christmas, and Daisy is planning to hide her head on my shoulder for that part.
I tried to explain to her that Fritz isn't really bad; he's just mischievous and high-spirited. Daisy really picked up on that idea, and now she sometimes reports to me that various little boys in her class are like Fritz. The other day she told me, "Randall has high spirits." (He is a fellow Oak Room "classer.") I have learned that she really likes Randall and is drawn to the "high-spirited" boys in her classroom. I find this interesting, because she is soooooo different from that description. It's definitely a case of an opposite attraction.
Daisy does this a lot with "bad guys"; she revises their motives and characteristics to make them more sympathetic. She also is VERY sensitive about naughty behavior. She has told me many times that she does NOT want to see the part of The Nutcracker in which Fritz accidentally breaks the nutcracker. We have discussed this moment many times because we're going to see the ballet live this Christmas, and Daisy is planning to hide her head on my shoulder for that part.
I tried to explain to her that Fritz isn't really bad; he's just mischievous and high-spirited. Daisy really picked up on that idea, and now she sometimes reports to me that various little boys in her class are like Fritz. The other day she told me, "Randall has high spirits." (He is a fellow Oak Room "classer.") I have learned that she really likes Randall and is drawn to the "high-spirited" boys in her classroom. I find this interesting, because she is soooooo different from that description. It's definitely a case of an opposite attraction.
posted by Sarah Goss at 9:00 PM
3 Comments:
Girls like the bad boys.
Gompy
I think Kai was about Daisy's age when he was also very sensitive to portrayals of any sort of behavior that might get a character into trouble. For example, he would get very upset by the TV show Clifford if Clifford and pals were doing something likely to make the neighbor angry. We would have to turn it off.
I thought it was a little worrisome at the time, but maybe it is an age-related thing.
Daisy and I have had several long conversations about this line from "On Top of Old Smoky": "A thief will just rob you and take what you have."
After discussing what a thief is Daisy stated that she was sure a thief would bring back the things he took and would turn out to be "nice" after all. M.B.
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