Not as Ridiculous as I Thought
I wonder why it is that if you harshly criticise a children's book people get upset at you, namely because it is a children's book. Hold it, when I think about it I suspect that it has less to do with it being a children's book and more to do with the fact that some people simply do not like you criticising something that they like and throw a trantrum when you do. Now, I am not saying that as a kid that I necessarily did not like this book, but as I read through it again I realise that it sort of rubs me up the wrong way.
Okay, it probably goes back to the day when I realised that Timbuctoo was in North Africa and that Kalamazoo was in Michigan which made the whole idea of a story of two trains travelling between these two town to be absolutely ridiculous (though as I have since discovered there is a Timbuctoo in New Jersy). Okay, I understand that maybe the writers were wanting to use a couple of crazy names for towns that also rhymed but I remember how my friends and I would laugh about the stupidity of this book when we work out the location of these two towns (and as it turned out the joke was on us).
If I had kids I am not sure if I would read this book to them, but then I have discovered that I am not a particularly big fan of the Little Golden Books. In a way I much prefer the Dr Suess Books than this particular series. I am not sure why but I can vaguely remember that I would be all over the Dr Suess books as a kid but only vaguely interested in the Little Golden Books. Now, so many years later, I sort of look back on that time, especially reading through these books again, and realise that I do have a preference.
