Congratulations, Mr. Krosoczka, You Scare My Child

Generally, Sam is an easy going fellow. He takes most everything in stride: when another child steals a car from him, he shrugs and finds a bus; when he falls off the slide, he looks around to see what happened and then climbs up again.

But occasionally, an irrational fear grips him. Sometimes it's people that set him off but more often it is a book or toy. I say these fears are irrational because things we expect would frighten him actually intrigue him. For instance, I was certain he would find the "scary piggy bank" just that, scary. Instead he was slightly bemused. No, this is what my son finds scary these days:

Granted, the duck does have an evil, curvy eyebrow, a dark, mysterious eye patch, and a menacing scowl...ok, so maybe he is a bit scary. Sam won't even stay in the room with the book. This afternoon, we were reading through a stack of books and when this one surfaced, Sam got up, backed away, and said, "No, no, no." He stayed on the other side of the room until I covered the book up and promised not to read it.

I'm sure Jarrett Krosoczka is a nice man. His website doesn't make him look scary...ok, except for the kid with a bag for his head. And the chicken playing keyboard - everyone knows chickens have no rhythm. But his other books look fun. It's just that duck.