What do you think?

I flipped through this donated book the other day called "My Very Own Octopus". In it, a boy imagines all the advantages of having a pet octopus, which includes protecting him from bullies and hugging him 8 times with his 8 arms. Those are all cute and appropriate.

But this book includes full color pages of situations such as "My room would always look neat because my octopus would help me put away all my clothes" and "And when my friend David came to visit, my octopus would help us put away all my toys"... and then "of course we would share our allowance with my octopus for helping us"... Anyone else notice something about these lines?

The boy goes on to daydream that "We would always take my octopus to the store when we went shopping. Our cart would be filled in no time at all. And anything our cart couldn't hold, my octopus would." and "On Halloween, my octopus could go around with me, and we would collect more treats than Glenn and all the other kids."...

This is the definition of American greed and materialistic competition! Consumerism starts with our children! This little boy is 'living the good life' of the Western culture of overindulgence. I'm concerned about the orphans getting the impression that all white kids have large rooms to themselves full of clothes and toys (true as it may be for most), and getting hung up on that... I mean, I'm not sure I'm comfortable explaining to poverty-stricken orphans that American kids regularly get money from their parents to buy whatever they want at the toy stores!

On the other hand, I don't want to shelter them from what it is like for a middle class American family, because that's the purpose of books - to educate and expand the minds, help them explore their world in ways they can't otherwise... I remember last year even secondary students at Pirrar were marveling at what dollar bills look like, and kept asking about what animals we raised in America, and what kinds of foods we ate, what our homes looked like... Who am I to judge how to filter their education? Perhaps this book can be presented to the students as it is -- a book written for upper to middle class U.S. citizens. -- and hope they understand.

Blog readers, what is your opinion? This is a genuine question about cultural sensitivity that I have been wrestling with over the past several weeks. Please feel free to comment on my blogs; I appreciate any feedback and value open discussion. Thanks!