Yes, I know the world is full of Barney haters. But our family will not throw a single dart at the giant purple dinosaur. Music-loving Quinn gets bored with most DVDS, but Barney - with song after song after song - he LOVES. And you gotta admit, some of the songs are pretty catchy.
It's no surprise that Barney has good, positive messages - I've read criticism that he shouldn't teach children the world is such a good place. But we didn't expect to find a positive adoption message tucked into the final moments of "Let's Go to the Zoo," which Quinn dug out of the cabinet this weekend. Baby Bop, the baby dinosaur, asks Barney to help her leave her beloved stuffed baby elephant in the elephant enclosure so it will be with its family. Barney tells her he thinks the baby elephant should stay with her because she is its family now - she loves it and cares for it and "that's the very best part of being a family."
No, there was no acknowledgment that the baby elephant might be missing its birth family, but none of the characters in this video was adopted - they were talking about someone else who was adopted. And of course, Barney is for very young kids.
I'm trying to build a library of books and videos with positive messages about adoption, and I must admit that a lot of the books I've collected so far I don't really love. Most are about girls, of course, and some I just don't care for. Here are my fave books so far:
A Mother for Choco
Motherbridge of Love
Letter of Love from China
Help me build my library! What are your favorite books, music or DVDs with positive adoption messages?
6 comments:
I would suggest: "The Family Book" by Todd Parr. His book "It's ok to be different" is also one of my favorites.
http://www.amazon.com/Family-Book-Todd-Parr/dp/0316738964
i love barney!!
keep blogging..
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Boo on the Barney Haters!! Ha!
We love Barney at our house too....
Oh, if only..."all the rain drops were lemon drops and gum drops.."
Kung-Fu Panda has two obvious adoptees, including the main character. There have got to be books about Babe Ruth's life that would be good for Quinn. Charles Eastman, Dartmouth educated Native American, wrote books about his life as well as children's books, but I don't know if they are about adoption-the fact that he was adopted himself might make them good for your collection. And how about James Naismith, who invented basketball?
If I think of more, I'll let you know. My head is pretty empty right now.
Ruby
If Quinn is a normal boy, he'll eventually discover and fall in love with Gary Paulsen's writings. On of Paulsen's books is Monument, and though it's about a girl, it's about a girl with a disability so it's special. Also, I would buy Safe at Home by Mike Lupica for when Quinn gets older. I just read Lupica's book Miracle on 49th Street and I loved it, even though it's for young adults.
Ruby
Thanks for all the great suggestions, everyone! And Sara, I keep checking the Barney website to see if the summer tour is coming our way. That show would be pretty much Quinn's dream come true!
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