Cavan, Corduroy, and clowns

Cavan loves the book Corduroy, by Don Freeman. As with most books, she will go through a period of a week or two, when she requests that one specific book be read over and over again. The last couple weeks have been a repeat of the story of the cute, little bear who lives in the toy department of a big store. And that is the setting of the first page, Corduroy sitting on a shelf with several other toys, including a stuffed bunny, a dolly, and a clown.

Every time we open to the first page, Cavan says the same thing, "Mommy, I don't like that clown," as she covers the clown with her hand. It cracks me up every time. But today there was a new twist on her clown phobia.

After her regularly scheduled comment, I continued reading the book. A few pages in Cavan looks at me, very seriously, and says, "Mommy, I never want a clown in my house."

Since this is a lovable kids book, I don't really consider this particular clown to have an evil persona. But I guess clowns are naturally creepy to a lot of people. Needless to say, we don't need to show Cavan the clown in Stephen King's IT!