Book Review: Trockle and More

By Holly Jahangiri, Author of Trockle

“Hey! Stop that. Don’t touch! Don’t put that in your mouth. Don’t go there. That’s not safe.” 

Even we parents get tired of hearing ourselves say it. None of us set out to raise fearful children, but how do we balance our need to keep them out of harm’s way with our desire to help them grow up brave, curious, happy, and eager to explore the world?

What I like about Rana DiOrio’s book, What Does It Mean To Be Safe? is its sensible, positive approach. “Does it mean locking yourself up? No!” Sandra Salsbury’s illustrations underscore each point – being safe does not mean being afraid to go out and have fun with your friends. It means taking sensible precautions like not giving out personal information to strangers; not doing things you’re not skilled enough or strong enough to do; and always paying attention to your conscience and your instincts.

What Does It Mean To Be Safe? also touches on the responsibility each child has to help create a safe environment for other people, such as ensuring that their rights are respected; not tolerating bullying; and lending a helping hand. Of course, kids aren’t on their own – there are trusted adults there to guide them: a policeman, a parent, a park ranger. Being safe also means “telling an adult you trust when you feel uneasy.” But rather than emphasizing “stranger danger,” and making the world seem like a scary place, the message is one of empowerment: With some simple steps, kids can help make the world safer and happier for everybody.

We want our kids to be safe, and sometimes it’s healthy to have a little fear. Fear of getting run over by a car, for example. But what about when that fear involves something “irrational,” like monsters under the bed? To a child, that monster is very real. Simply telling him there’s no monster under the bed is only going to convince him you don’t know everything, after all.

I’m afraid of spiders. If you say to me, “That tiny little thing can’t hurt you - it is more afraid of you than you are of it!” I know, intellectually, that you’re right – but it doesn’t magically cure my fear of spiders. It just says, to me, that you are unsympathetic and think I’m foolish to be afraid. I don’t think most parents want to send their children that message.

Some fears are rooted in a strong self-protective instinct, and they may serve us well so long as they don’t keep us from doing the things we need or want to do. I wrote Trockle because this little monster under the bed was keeping my son awake at night, with the light on. Rather than insist he try to sleep – impossible! – or turn off the light and lie awake in the dark, terrified of what was under the bed, I figured he could use the time to practice his reading skills.

I’d already tried the monster repellent – just as Stephen’s mother tried to do. It didn’t work. As I wrote out the things we’d talked about and tried already, a little monster waddled into my study and hopped up onto my desk. 

“Whatcha writing?” he asked.

“What’s your name?” I asked back.

“Trockle.”

Turns out, he couldn’t sleep, either. My big scary boy on top of the bed was scaring the living daylights out of the little monster. He told me what his mother told him about my son, which is pretty close to what I’d told my son about him. I was glad I got that much right. You wouldn’t think a big human boy and a little one-eyed monster would have so many things in common, but they did. And when my son read the story I’d written, including the half that was told to me by Trockle, we turned out the light and went to sleep.

Both books are wonderful additions to home and school library collections!

Buy Trockle here.
Buy What Does It Mean To Be Safe? here. 

Visit Holly at her blog, too!