Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn

My daughter LOVED the illustrations. I had an issue with what felt like the underlying themes, as silly as this sounds. It read like it was wrong to suggest the kitty was a kitty, not a unicorn, and seemed to suggest one's identity can be decided by themselves and that there aren't clear distinctions in identities. Not for me as a parent.

This book was read to my 2 y/o daughter in day care. I didnt appreciate this because it preaches a particular moral lesson that contradicts something I teach at home. At home, I teach that there are skills, talents, and aspects of personality that can be improved, cultivated, and identified as primary, and then there are aspects of being that are by nature immutable. I teach that one's feelings are important, but should not be the primary drivers of behavior over cultivating important values like discipline, moderation, and gratitude. And I teach that we should strive to get our feelings to be subordinate to the values we cultivated. This book teaches that ones inner feelings are the only thing that matter. This book teaches that the proper response to being shown your feelings might be wrong is to be sad and depressed until people affirm "who you are", and the primacy of your feelings. This book illustrates the belief that your identity IS your inner feelings, irrespective of anything else. This book is not about being who you want to be in the face of adversity, which would involve cultivating real change in yourself in your striving toward a goal, this book is about rejecting the corrective feedback of objective reality and placing all your trust in the feelings drummed up by your totally undeveloped brain and central nervous system, even when those feelings create a world of pain and suffering for you. Maybe I am over analyzing the situation, but in my view this book has no place on a children's book shelf, or on the Scholastic's list of books to read to children in day care.

This book is super sweet and I love the message. As soon as I read it, I knew that it would be the perfect book for my “kitty-corn” 6 year old who is dealing with gender identity issues and is waiting to be “seen” by someone who understands. I couldn’t read it to him without choking up. But it could also resonate with a child who likes something they could possibly get made fun of for- performing magic, being smart, etc. Alternatively it could be a great lesson for children to accept someone who is different than them. Its a book that could really help facilitate those types of conversations.