Table of Contents
Introduction 8 Part I Books 10 Classics Caution 12 Seven Bookshelf Musts 16 I'm Board: How Can Something with So Few Words Be So Good? 20 A Special Tribute to Goodnight Moon 21 Where the Wild Things Are: So Good, It's Scary 24 A Special Dissing of The Tale of Peter Rabbit 27 Wait, You Didn't Say This Book Was Going to Be on the Test 28 The Worstiest Worst of Dr. Seuss 30 The Grover Library 32
25 Reasons Why Celebrities Should Not Write Children's Books (and Why You Should Avoid Them) 33 A Few Celebrity-Authored Books That Are Actually Quite Good 36 The Search is On: Hunting for Waldo.et. al. 41 Noisy Books: "The Cow Says...Moo." The Parent Says, "Throw This Damn Thing Against the Wall." 42 Too Hip for the Pre-School: Postmodern Kid Books 43 Enough Already: Disposable Kid Books 46 Books Based on Movie/TV Shows and Why to Avoid Them 48 Ten Books to Know That We Couldn't Fit In Anywhere Else 49 Intermezzo: The Wonderful Evolution of Oz 52 Part II TV and Video 58
12 Moments Where the Muppets are as Great as Anything Ever Created by Mankind 60 The ABCs of Kiddie TV: An Abridged Encyclopedia 62 Sesame Test: This Quiz Has Been Brought to You By the Letter Q 71 Barney and Friends vs. Bear in the Big Blue House (With an Assist from The Teletubbies) 74 Superhero Substitutions 77 God is in the Tomato 81 A Host of Changes (or, Wait, What Happened to the Other Guy?) 83 Ten Children's TV Shows to Know That We Couldn't Fit In Anywhere Else 87 Intermezzo: Oh the Places Dr. Seuss Has Gone 91 Part III Music 96 Why It's Okay for You to Hate Children's Entertainers 98 The Six Classes of Kids' Musicians 99 Our Favorite Performances of Children's Songs by FamousEntertainers 100 Great Adult Songs that Could Easily Be Passed Off As Children's Songs 105 Music Quiz: The Songs Remain the Same 106 But Isn't It Really About, You Know, Drugs? The Definitive Dope on "Puff the Magic Dragon" 108 A Wiggly Primer for the Uninitiated Parent 110 How to Tell the Beatles from the Wiggles 114 When You Need a Good Cry 116 Why Schoolhouse Rock Still Rocks 117 Ten Songs To Know That We Couldn't Fit in Anywhere Else 120 Intermezzo: The Ever-Changing, Always-Constant World of Charlie Brown 121 Part IV Movies 126 What's in a Rating? 128 The Disney Animated Feature Canon Part 1: The Walt Years 130 The Disney Princesses Quiz 144 The Disney Animated Feature Canon Part 2: The Post-Walt Years 148 Disney Live Action to Watch/Avoid 165 You've Got Animation in My Live Action/You've Got Live Action in My Animation 170 Pixar Sticks 172 Hey, What's He/She Doing in a Kid Flick? 173 The Other Guys: The Best of Non-Disney Traditional Animation Feature Films 174 Ten Movies to Know That We Couldn't Fit in Anywhere Else 176 Part V Characters, Characters Everywhere 178 Theater: Annie, et al. 180 Arena Shows: Better Skate Then Never 183 Chance Encounters: Board Games, Your Kid, and You 184 Breakfast Cereal: Your Sugar-pushing Friends 185 Live: Look Honey, It's the Real Mickey! 186 Afterword 188 Quiz Answers 189 Index 194 About the Authors 203
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