That's it, the premise is just that simple. Along with 'Bread and Jam for Frances' these were my oldest books.įrances doesn't want to go to bed. If 'spanking' were replaced with some other non-violent concept of discipline, then I could consider recommending it.Īgain, we revisit a book that I read many many times as a child. It's just not an acceptable concept anymore - especially not for a children's book. I can imagine a child who doesn't know what spanking is asking and then becoming confused and upset at the idea that Frances' parents would hit her. Corporal punishment is no longer socially acceptable - not in any context. It is the threat of corporal punishment that finally drives home the lesson of this story (Everything has a job) and leads to Frances going to sleep. The second 'problem' is that there is a reference to spanking in the story if Frances doesn't ultimately comply with her parents' orders to go to sleep.

Dad's pipe (and the smoking paraphernalia of any other characters) needs to disappear in order for me to consider recommending this book today. Today, not only is smoking on its way to becoming taboo, pipe smoking specifically can bring to mind connections with drug use. When I was a child, my father smoked a pipe and a lot of my friends' fathers smoke pipes.

The first 'problem' I ran into was that Frances' father smokes a pipe.

However, re-reading this book in 2011, I cannot say that I would recommend it to children today (unless a couple of changes were made to the story). She's always up to some mischief that her parents patiently tolerate and she learns from her experiences, growing a little more with each one.

Bedtime for frances book