Hoarding is not collection development
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The Shame of Divorce
Divorced
“I Wouldn’t Have Given a Nickel for Your Chances”
Stewart
1974
The general theme of Christian memoirs is usually how someone’s crappy life was saved by faith. This one is no exception. The first chapter describes her husband walking away after handing her a couple hundred dollars. No support, no income, no experience, and forced into the working world for the first time. It was a bad situation.
What bothered me most was that most of her reflection was about her personal shame of divorce. I was hoping that she might recognize that her idiot ex was the one who should be ashamed. Nope. It is still better to be married. In one chapter, she talks a woman out of leaving her husband, even if he has girlfriends on the side. I quit reading after that. Even for 1974, that is a bit much.
Mary
Mommy and Daddy Are Divorced
Mommy and Daddy are Divorced
Perry and Lynch
1985
Submitter: We are a faculty of education library, and have lots of picture books on how teachers can help kids deal with various difficult topics. We are doing inventory and I took the opportunity to weed this gem. The terrible black and white photographs caught my eye first. It looks like the authors just took their own home photos and stuck them onto pages with some text. The picture on the last page is the best one – so dark and blurry you can hardly make the figures out. While the subject of divorce is an important one, a lot has changed since 1985. Main character Ned would be over 30 by now. Surely we can find a more up to date book on the subject! It has been in our library for 20 years and never once circulated, so it was time to say goodbye to Ned and his divorced parents.
Holly: This book screams 1985! In fact, it looks even older than that. If it hasn’t left the shelf once in 20 years, it’s a good weeding candidate. If it was written for children who are now divorced themselves, it’s an even better weeding candidate.
Mommy’s Getting Married (and it isn’t to Daddy)
Martha’s New Daddy
Steel
1989
This little gem is from my collection. (I had no idea Ms. Steel wrote a children’s book, either.) Our little girl Martha is the child of divorce and now Mom has announced her intentions to marry John. This doesn’t sit well with Martha, as she always imagined her crazy parents getting back together. The rest of the story is that Daddy is okay with this and would rather be Mommy’s friend. John and Mommy get married, and everyone (except Daddy) jets off to Hawaii for a honeymoon. It’s all good.
I know that having this kind of material is probably necessary, but I don’t think Danielle’s calling is in picture books. (I will spare you my tirade on how everyone seems to think they can write a children’s book. Hint: Not everyone can.) Actually, I am wondering if it is to the point where blended families are so common that we don’t need a “message” picture book. I personally haven’t had a request for something like this in an ice age or two.
Mary