Doomer bedtime stories for kids

[EyesWideOpen]

Cheerful=indomitable/imbued with a slight gallows humour, about right Jonny?

I loved Jack London as a child, teen, and again as an adult.

[MEA]

The Ox Cart Man

[ithacaisdoomed]

Great thread!  I've gotten some great ideas from reading this.  I have a five year old, so I have to be fairly careful about instilling fear.  We're terrified of fire, Cyclops, and dinosaurs crashing through the walls at this point.  I've learned a lesson about sharing any greek mythology with the youngster.  I actually wrote a post about Doomer Children's Literature on my blog.  These are good books for the 4-6 year old set.  Here's the link:

http://ithacaisdoomed.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/doomer-childrens-literature/

[donk]

Don't forget my favorite- the Lorax!!

mine (and my 5 & 7 year old) too!  Perfect spring board for all kinds of discussion, and if the 8 yo thinks he's too old for it, the Butter Battle Book is a great one he did that you can talk about the few issues the Lorax doesn't cover...between the effects of the short-sightedness in the way we exploit resources in the Lorax and the senslessness of fighting and war and voilence in the BBB, you got most of your doomer areas covered...

[heathenmom]

The Ox Cart Man

Got this from the library last week .... we've read it nearly every day (some times 2-3x/day!) since I got it.  Every time we read it, the girls (2 & 5) find something else to ask about.  They're particularly fascinated with the ox's yoke & harness. 

[MEA]

The Ox Cart Man

Got this from the library last week .... we've read it nearly every day (some times 2-3x/day!) since I got it.  Every time we read it, the girls (2 & 5) find something else to ask about.  They're particularly fascinated with the ox's yoke & harness. 

I have a list of books I re-read every year. Ox Cart Man is on it.

[peter31]

Just wanted to put in a shout for "Henry's Quest" by Graham Oakley.  We borrowed this from our local library after so many of you recommended it (along with The Ox-Cart Man).  It's one of those really fun books which can be read on several levels: as an adventure story for small children, or as a political satire for adults (if you have a miltary coup, the victor is often just as bad as the person he overthrew...).  As children get older they will probably appreciate more of the satire component.  "Peter Pan" is also a bit like that.  The illustrations are awesome and very funny if you look for the small details (and I'm talking really small, like, use your extra strength reading glasses if you have them).  Highly recommended.  One word of warning though: it's an English book so some children may need to be told that "petrol" means the same as "gasoline".

[Mr. Bones]

As long as the stories aren't too doomy and they don't rip away the kid's innocence and cheerful naivety too soon (which will be torn away in a matter of years anyways). 

[jmhpolar]

Whatever you do keep them the f*ck away from any Ayn Rand 

[boiler_92]

Cheerful? Read "To Build a Fire" and then get back to me on that.

Grower, I was just thinking about To Build a Fire the other day when I was, well trying to build a fire.  My kindling was not dry enough so it was difficult to get it going (and this was in my fireplace) and I started thinking about that guy in the snowstorm... 

It's been at least 30 years since I read that.  Obviously, it made an impression.

[♥RÉĎRËÅMÊŖ♥]

Shel Silverstein's "The Giving Tree"

finite resources.

[Alecia]

Shel Silverstein's "The Giving Tree"

finite resources.

Good call- also one of my favorites.

[OutOfStep351]

Nothing more fitting to the doomer's life then "The Grasshopper and the Ant."

Rather then focusing on specific things, like not putting money in banks, I'd try to figure out some broad themes that you could develop narratives around, like self-sufficiency, consumerism, hard work, preparation, critical thinking, etc.

[Ottava Karhu]

Well, there are the little tales told by the narrator in /Riddley Walker/, some of them intended for kids...but I think your children might not sleep for the rest of their lives.

Make sure you prepare for the question, "So if the future is going to be holocaust, why did you put me in it?" I asked my parents that, based on growing up in a refinery town during the Cold War, the #2 target for Soviet ICBMs. We were doing duck and cover drills into the late 1960s, though our parents knew it was bull honky.

[MEA]

Good question.

In my case, I seemed to have developed selective reasoning in the mid and late 90s -- all these books and newspapers articles coming about about CG and there was, among my friends, a growing awareness about PO, and all this neat stuff about conservation...

God, I was a fool.