As sharp as a tack...

Sometimes, the best thing about being an attentive parent is also the worst thing. You will undoubtedly spot something your little one (or ones) does that will take your breath away and you'll feel like telling everyone you meet.

Princess C is definitely her mother's daughter, and is (to coin that brilliant and oft underused phrase) as sharp as a tack. Nothing gets by her, even stuff that I'm sure I'd have fallen hook line and sinker for as a kid (forget trying to take her nose off and pretending that your wiggling thumb is her schnozz, she won't fall for that - or for the "Look, there's a dinosaur!" method of stealing her chocolate when she's eating it!)

The other day we were leafing through a fairly well known book and starting to think about how the review would go (for 'the other place, the booky place!')

Princess C liked the book but had a clear picture in her mind who the 'hero' of the book was - and also, rather alarmingly, who the 'baddie' was.

To explain further, the 'baddie' in this story wasn't really a baddie, just a girl who had something that the 'hero' wanted. Kids and sharing are two extremely mutually exclusive terms and of course in any book where the main character is expected to share, expect plenty of scoffing from your younglings.

That really wasn't the alarming part. Princess C noticed, straight off the bat, that the illustration depicted an Asian girl. Thankfully she didn't elaborate further but it completely changed the whole perception and tone of the book virtually within the space of one page spread. The depiction was subtle, but based on Princess C's knowledge of the other books in the series and the programme, it was an educated piece of observation.

Princess C finding something like that, something the authors, designers, illustrators and publishers had missed made me realise not only how sharp she is, but also how cool and switched on she is about things that some parents will probably call "Political correctness gone mad"

Political correctness doesn't exist. Being sensitive to others most definitely does, thank goodness!