Modern Mom: Classic Violence Too Much for Me

Every Monday my first-grader comes home from school with two library books from the school library. Presumably, these books are selected to be part of the library based on a rubric of suitability, literary merit, and so forth. Last week my son came home with Rudyard Kipling’s classic “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.” The book, in case you don’t know (which I didn’t) is about the battle between a mongoose and a pair of deadly cobras. It is, to put it mildly, quite graphic. There’s blood, gore, and guts as the snakes fight for control of the garden and the mongoose fights to protect the family that has taken him in. As I was reading the book to my son, I was taken aback by the violence. I kept thinking that if the exact same words were written about a fight between people, there’s no way I’d want my son to read it. But why is the violence okay if it’s between animals? Violence is violence, no? I realize this will be an unpopular opinion. I visited Amazon’s listing for the book and read review after review about what a “sweet,” “endearing,” “timeless classic,” this story is. My son loved it, and I love when he loves a book. It’s just that I love it a bit more when it’s one we can both enjoy.