What she saw convinced her to never give the book back to the Central Linn School District, and to do her best to make sure it’s never replaced.
“I saw poor bunnies going through meat grinders; people, like, throwing them in there and they’re getting shot out. People in Nazi helmets, and there’s a bunny, and they’re shooting him,” she said.

Source: Albany Democrat Herald, ‘Bunny suicides’ irks mom

Like I always say, don’t mess with Momma. It’s not surprising to me that this book is by a British author. From the land that brought us the repulsive opus of Roald Dahl comes a steady stream of gory fiction passed off as children’s literature. Think Harry Potter. What’s the deal with those people in Europe? It’s not just the Brits. Grimm’s fairy tales, anyone? Mother Goose? These “classics” read like a catalogue of atrocities, misogyny and Satanism far worse than anything the strange people at Chick Tracts could invent. I think it must be the long dark winters. Someone in California could never write a book like this.

Although she has been encouraged to return the book and follow the due procedures set by the school district she will make a far bigger splash defying the authorities and threatening to burn the book like she plans. Look, she made it on the cover of the local newspaper.

Good for you, Ma.

Try Google Images for a sample of pages from the book. Do I think these are funny? Oh, yes. Should they be in a high school library? Not necessarily. Would I let my kids read this book? I’d have to read it first. Here’s the deal, we as parents are responsible for our children. I’m not saying we’re responsible for everybody else’s children. But we’re responsible for our own. That responsibility is not simply about censorship. In some cases my kids ask to read a book and we say no. But a far greater gift that we can give our children than insulating them from harmful literature is the gift of standards and discernment. I don’t plan to babysit my kids when they’re off to college. I can’t even monitor every book they pick up in the children’s section of the library. But I can try to teach discernment about books and TV so that they can learn to ask questions that are ultimately going to guide their viewing habits as adults.

We have a standard in our house for movies. We only watch G or PG. But we couple that with discernment. Sometimes we will find ourselves watching a PG movie that is too gross or disturbing. It’s then that we have to decide to turn it off. When my kids get older they’ll probably have many opportunities to see films with a variety of ratings. They will set their own standards (No X-rated films, I would hope!) But they will have to use discernment in some cases to decide whether a film or book that meets their standards is worth their time.

Since I’m sounding like such a goody two-shoes, I just have to mention that most Christians I know are pretty puritanical in their movie viewing habits but many of them think nothing of reading smut. I like action novels but there are authors out there who portray graphic scenes of sex and violence (sometimes in the same scene). If it were a movie it would be X-rated. So why do we think it’s OK?

Well, again, I don’t intend to dictate what others read and watch. Which is why I don’t agree with this mother’s plan. But “as for me and my house” we will set standards and use discernment as a way of honoring the Lord.

Images: from The Book of Bunny Suicides by Andy Riley

If you want to learn more about books from Andy Riley you might check out Great Lies To Tell Small Kids which contains gems like “Rain is Jesus’ wee-wee” and “Wine makes mommy clever.”