Tonight, I read to Leo. We read 'Make Way for Ducklings'. This book has made a reappearance at our house as it has been in storage for some time. I have not read it with Leo before and I wasn't sure if he had read it all. He assured me that he has, in fact, read it with mama.
Fair enough.
We got to this page:
And I said, "Doesn't he look nice?"
Leo said he did not. Again, I asked him if he had read this before. The policeman (who is named Michael) is awfully nice. Later on in the book he stops traffic for the ducks and even calls in a car from Central to help direct traffic for them. This is a nice policeman.
When I asked him if had read it before, he assured me that he had. So I asked him what happens later on. He pointed to the night stick and said, 'he takes that and stabs the ducks'. Whaaaat? I told him that isn't quite how I remember it.
We read on. Sure enough, there is no stabbing. The police are very nice and the ducks are finally settled in to there new surroundings. We finished up and I closed the book. Very quickly, Leo told me that someone had ripped out the page where the stabbing takes place. I told him I didn't think so. Quite honestly, there is very little stabbing in the books that we read to him. There is
some stabbing in the books that Felix reads. Maybe some in Relia's too. But none for Leo. I don't know where he gets it. Does every three year old sound like a budding killer, or did we just get lucky?
We also looked at the front cover. The book was a Caldecott winner and they have the medal imprinted on the cover. He looked at that and told me that the circle was from the 'first' cover but someone remade it so it would have ducks on it.
Leo has a very different concept of 'Make Way for Ducklings' than almost anyone else in the world.
