Concerning & Potentially Concerning Content

When reading this list of concerning content, please keep in mind that all of this is packed into a short number of pages with very few words. It is also important to keep the intended audience in mind. This book jumps in immediately and teaches a very misleading and deceptive message about divorce. Karen, the main character who is 6 years old, begins by telling readers she is “very lucky”. Why? She says it is because she and her little brother have two families due to divorce. She goes on to tell these young readers that there is good in this, such as double birthdays and Christmas presents. The bad? We are told it is having two different sets of rules at the two separate homes. That’s it. Nearly all of us have had front row seats to the damage and destruction that divorce causes to everyone involved, especially young children. This alone is worth keeping this from the young impressionable readers the book targets. But there is plenty more. Next up we are introduced to the focus of the book. Little Karen, who young readers see this story through, is completely convinced there is a witch living next door. How does she know this? She tells us it is because she spies on her all the time, to which the book is clear she is specifically told not to do by her parents. Karen says she “can’t help it” and, to make it much worse, she tells her young readers, “Wouldn’t you spy? It’s important to know what she’s up to”. This theme of witches comes up again and again. For instance, Karen begs her sister to read her ‘witch stories’, which she does. Later her and her friend pretend to be ‘good witches’ (a very dangerous concept to introduce). At one point they decide to get ingredients and chant a spell together (with ingredients they stole). On top of all of this we see Karen’s bad behavior and immorality throughout. She sticks her tongue out at her sister. She yells “FOR YOUR INFORMATION”. She says the neighbor smells funny. She says she hates apologizing. She gets caught spying by her dad and bold-faced lies to him, which she totally gets away with. When going off to do something they shouldn’t, something she convinces her friend to do, she specifically tells her friend not to tell her parents anything (including that they are leaving the house as 6-year-olds). She also lies to this same friend and we see her internally think that she really just needed her to go along with what she was doing. We see rudeness from other characters as well. One brother says, “that sounds boring” to an offer for someone to read to them. Later when Karen is in huge trouble we see both young brothers smiling and being happy about it. And the conclusion of the book? Her and her friend ruin a neighbor’s party. Dad makes Karen promise she will never spy again. We immediately see an image of her smiling and admitting she was lying to her dad. She then completely lies to her brothers. We then see her driving away telling the young readers she is sure that the neighbor is in fact a witch. And the book ends…