Comments on: A great choice for a parenting collection!

By: Sophie

Sophie — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 03:33:17 +0000

my god. that book is WRONG!

By: Ralph

Ralph — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:54:25 +0000

Clever children will invite abuse so that they can grow up and write a Miserylit memoir and make $$$$$$$$$$$$.

(That’swhy they say ‘wicked’ all the time).

By: LG

LG — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:42:09 +0000

As a cataloger, your story makes me cringe. I hope we don’t have something that misleading in our catalog.

By: Cassie

Cassie — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:22:14 +0000

Are you not familiar with the site? The idea is that the books are amusing or odd for some reason, and the reason this one is amusing is because of what the cover suggests. Nobody put it up because of how terrible they think the content was. They weren’t judging a book by it’s cover, they were just plain judging the cover. That’s why it’s amusing

By: Mushroom

Mushroom — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:43:55 +0000

“are child abusers one of your major patron groups that you feel are being underserved by the public library?”

Definitely not unserved in my area, they come in to use the Internet terminals every day.

By: Cindy Dobrez

Cindy Dobrez — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:55:14 +0000

This reminds me of my first encounter with unfortunate LC subject headings in my public library job fresh out of grad school. I found a heading CHILD ABUSE-INSTRUCTION MANUALS and was horrified. It was for a book on how to lead workshops to help folks recovering from abuse or something like that but the initial shock was similar to this book title you found.

By: Ron

Ron — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:16:06 +0000

Thank you MJ.

By: marykelly48

marykelly48 — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:17:18 +0000

I guess the old adage of you can’t judge a book by the cover is appropriate! I still have issues with currency however, for my situation in a medium public library.

By: Carolee

Carolee — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:01:04 +0000

The title choice is unfortunate, but the author is a highly intelligent, thoughtful retired librarian who is passionate about respectful treatment of children.

By: Mary

Mary — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:33:24 +0000

When I started working at my library in 1989, I was also horrified when I first read this title. Discovering that one of our public librarians had written it intrigued me enough to open it.

A quick look inside verifies what MJ said. The book is meant to help parents understand difficult children and is not meant in any way to promote child abuse. The fact that it won these awards should make that clear.

Perhaps the author thought a provocative title would lead to more interest from the target audience, those who might be feeling “at the end of their ropes.”

If David put his neck on the table by bringing in this book, it might lead to a more lively meeting rather than a lynching. I say, “Be brave! Open that book! Surfaces can be deceiving.”