Catholic Family Vignettes

Six children + one distracted mom + a rolling cart full of books = at least one book you would never have allowed your six year old to check out:



Different Like Coco, is on the surface, a children's book (for ages four to eight, according to Amazon) about Coco Chanel, the French Fashion diva/designer, of days gone by. I certainly have no intention to dive into the rather pathetic life of Coco Chanel; tragedy, feminism, abandonment of societal conventions: all in all, interesting "soap opera fodder."

As I opened this book to read to my two littles ones (I didn't even make the connection that "Coco" was "Coco Chanel"), I was greeted with the adorable line drawing of a thin little girl, gleefully stuffing the bodice of her white slip with toilet paper. I closed the book quickly before the inevitable questions, ensued.

Having dismissed the girls, a thorough perusal was in order. Here are a few tidbits for the four to eight year old girl to consider:

*Coco lied about everything, even her confessions because she liked to tell stories (nice little drawing of Coco in the confessional, complete with shocked expression on the face of the priest).

*The nuns at Notre Dame mistreated the poor children. Feeding them second class food and separating them from the "paying" students.

*Coco had, ahem, a "friend", whom she loved and never married. He did, nonetheless, purchase her first shop.

*Extremely unflattering depictions of over-weight women who simply didn't measure up to the Coco Chanel ideal.

And so on...

The moral of this story: when rounding up six children and checking out thirty library books, it's a good idea to take a peek inside the cover of your toddler's books before you "scan and stack."