What are we teaching kids??

I was watching a friend's kids last night and after jammies for the older girl, I told her to pick a book. She picked out a chapter book, Junie B. Jones. I asked her if her Mom reads her this and she said, "Oh yes." (Note, she is almost 5.) So, I started to read. Then I went from reading in normal Mom mode to having to sensor a book written for KIDS!!! Words like DUMB, STUPID, HATE. I thought back to the books I read as a kid (or those that were read to me). One of my all time favorites is Beverly Cleary's, Ramona the Pest. So, what did I spend some time doing this evening? A little compare and contrast between kid's literature of today and kid's literature of my day. Here is an excerpt from Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly School Bus:

"I hate that Jim. After that, the bus kept stopping and starting. And lots of kids kept getting on. Loud kids. And some of them were the kind who look like meanies. Then the bus began getting very noisy and hot inside. And the sun kept shining down on me and my fuzzy hot sweater. And here's another hot thing. I couldn't roll down my window because it didn't have a handle. And so I just kept on getting hotter and hotter.And it smelled in the bus, too. The bus smelled like an egg salad sandwich.
"I want to get off of here," I said right out loud.
But nobody heard me. "I hate it in this stupid smelly bus." Then my eyes got a little bit wet. I wasn't crying, though. 'Cause I'm not a baby, that's why.
After that, my nose started running. Only the bus didn't have a glove compartment. Which is where you keep the travel tissues, of course. And so I had to wipe my nose on my fuzzy pink sweater sleeve.
Then I stayed on the bus for about an hour or three. Until finally I saw a flagpole and a playground. Then Mr. Woo drove the bus into the parking lot and stopped.
I jumped up very fast. 'Cause all I wanted to do was get off that stupid smelly thing!

What do I find wrong with this? She hates. I try to teach my daughter that we don't HATE anyone. We may not like everyone the same and some people are not easy to like, but we do not HATE them. The author does not use correct grammar!! What the FUCK? The last sentence above is a prime example. I jumped up very fast, because all I wanted to do was get off that stupid smelly bus. Kids can talk like adults and use complex sentences for crying out loud! This girl also complained about everything from the beginning to the end and complained about everyone. I CANNOT stand whining, so why would I want a book to encourage my kids to do it?

Do the Ramona books have some not so perfect things in them? Yes. Dumb is used in Ramona, but only twice (not several times in the same page). NEVER is it used to describe a person.

Ramona: "Why did you have to go and do something dumb like hiding behind the trash cans?"

Junie: "HEY, Watch IT YOU DUMB JIM!" I hollered.

I think I will be censoring reading lists and library finds for many years to come!!