Lippy the Lion
Mon, 26/02/2007 - 15:26 — pook
 | Lippy The Lion author: Joanne Green rating:  asin: 1894936671 binding: Paperback list price: $15.95 USD amazon price: $15.81 USD |
Hi everyone. Here's my first (short) book review.
I recently came across this book whilst doing a "cleft palate" search on Amazon and immediately bought it.
This is a great little story which my kid is enjoying immensely. The illustrations are very cute and our little boy loves them. He'll love it even more once he's old enough to understand the story. For now it just gives me a warm feeling to be able to read it to him.
I hope you all enjoy this book as much as we have.
© 2007 & 2008 CleftWorld
All public entries on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License.
All public entries on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License.
Thank you Julie and Susie
Fri, 28/03/2008 - 15:15 — oleWe want to especially thank Julie Reid and Susie Gibb - both have been INCREDIBLY generous with their time, advice and general support and have been instrumental in Per's brilliant progress... THANK YOU!
Comments
Lippy the Lion
I am always amazed about people who fawn over this book. They are invariablly parents who do not understand that calling the Lion "Lippy" because he has a cleft lip is disgusting.
Do you really want your child to come home from school getting called Lippy because he has a cleft lip.
Pathetic
Wow...
that's a pretty strong sentiment. 'Disgusting'? 'Pathetic'? Why would my child be called 'Lippy' at school just because I read her this book? Hasn't happened yet. Did this happen to you?
Your child would not be
Your child would not be called Lippy at school because she read the book.
She might be called Lippy if others read it though. What would your reaction to that be?
What I am saying is, we do not need labels. Why would any character in any child's book be named because of a visible defect. Does this Lion for example have a friend called Limpy the club-footed elephant?
My point is that while the idea of the book is excellent the name of the character is misplaced. My own experiences while not pleasant were pretty mild. Better than some and worse than others. I would like to say that not all kids experience problems however that doesn't mean to say we should provide the ammunition for others.
Yes it is a strong sentiment and i make no apologies for that.
This is not the first discussion to be had on the use of so called "cute" terminology. While it may be cute to the parents - it tends not to be so cute to the grown cleft affected person who has probably had some associated teasing/bullying story to tell.
Parents of cleft affected children are fantastic - without their dedication to us we would not thrive or develop - however just as I do not know what it feels like to be the parent of a cleft affected child - a parent unless themselves cleft -affected does not know what it is like to have a cleft. You and I are looking at this book from 2 totally different angles. To you it's a nice cute and well meanng maybe even helpful story. To me the story is fine but it could also do two things; 1 It could say to a cleft affected child that it is OK to be given a label based on your appearance and 2 it could say to a non-cleft affected child that it is OK to call a cleft affected child names because of a physical defect.
Lippy the Lion, as I say the idea is great - the name adds nothing and is unnecessary.
Hope you see where I am coming from.
I don't agree with you
but I can't argue with your comments either - I'm not cleft so have no idea just what it would feel like. Having said that, I was called all sorts of things at school. I personally think kids will pick on anything, whether it's a cleft, glasses, too short, too tall.... you get my point. But like I said, not being cleft myself I can't actually say whether reading it in a book like that would offend me or not and you're right, I'd only considered the parent's point of view.
You're dead right and i will
You're dead right and i will always tell tell parents to try not to get too upset about teasing because lots of kids do get teased for all sorts of reasons including the reasons you outline here.
However to illustate my point - if for example child has a weight problem, as many do, would be produce a book to help him called "Fatty the Elephant"?
I think not.
All I am saying is that while the book is well meaning the name is stupid, ill-conceived and goes firmly against what many people are trying to stop - labelling.
Lippy
My daughter now 7 was born with a cleft lip. Being Called Lippy is not an insult to her whatsoever! She knows all about her lip what it looked like before and how beautiful she was and still is! It's people like you that think having a cleft lip is disgusting that we all find insulting. I myself find clefts to be beautiful!