Surprisingly...

My grandbaby has discovered the joy of adverbs. He loves to begin his sentences with actually, literally or technically. Recently (!) he added surprisingly.

“Surprisingly, in Zootopia 2, the snakes are not the bad guys!”

I adore his (somewhat officious) vocabulary—of course I do! But that last comment threw me for a loop.

He is five years old and already he’s internalized this stereotype. Snakes are evil! They’re slithering, venomous antagonists, not loveable heroes. A story where a snake is the good guy comes as a big surprise.

Not saying I love snakes. And this literary trope goes waaaaay back.

But still, it shook me up. I started wondering what other stereotypes he was taking in. Young as he is, he’s out in the world now, going to school, meeting people with values very different from his family’s. He’s listening, watching, absorbing-- osmosis is at work.

My sweet boy! There’s no shielding him from the many toxic isms, the poisonous prejudices he’ll encounter as he grows up. Right now, his heart is as wide as the world, but the world has a way of shrinking hearts, one bias, one preconception at a time.

What can I do? Obviously, I can read him good books, meaning books that turn the expected on its head. Books that, like the film Zootopia 2, make his eyes widen and his brain spin. Books where the scaly reptile can be the good guy, as long as it possesses integrity and a sense of justice. Books that show things from more than one point of view, and leave my boy wondering if both could be right. Books that, yes, literally, help my grandbaby’s heart stay open and his mind unfettered

I can try to write those books, too. Off to my desk now…