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Rating: 
Summary: an important reminder for all sensible parents
Review: I happen to live in the country where crime rate is the lowest among the most developed countries; even then, the crime rate is rising steadily. There is hardly any book in print in this country that gives advice to parents on how to teach your children protect themselves against "strangers". This is the issue that seldom being addressed in this society. Unless a real crime has been committed in the neighborhood the parents are seldom encouraged to talk to their kids about stranger safety. I am glad that I am one step ahead of those parents because it is never too early to educate your kids on this subject. It is very difficult for a young child to understand the concept of "stranger" and its relation to "danger". But this book has done a good job. It really shows to the child that bad guys can look like anything and they can use any tricks just to get what they want. The book has really helped me to start a conversation about self protection and bad guy identifying with my child. Also, the illustrations are funny and the lines are in rhymes, it really holds a child's attention.
Rating: 
Summary: Some very dangerous advice...
Review: Like many parents, I scrutinize books dealing with stranger safety because it is such a critically important issue. I was very disappointed with this book. Ms. Gross's overall determination to rhyme each passage makes it difficult to understand many sentences. But, most importantly, she also imparts some very dangerous advice to her young readers.For example: "Good strangers are people your parents talk to. You can trust them to know just what to do." What an appallingly irresponsible and dangerous message for our young children, who are as helpless and incapable as we are of discerning between the harmless milk man and the pedophiliac tree surgeon! Mommy and Daddy talk to many strangers, and cannot know whether they are good or bad!
On the very next page, Ms. Gross suggests that we solve that problem by resorting to stereotype: "Community helpers can help even more. Police, firefighters, letter carriers or....doctors and dentists who round out the team, and teach you things always aren't what they seem." At first I couldn't even discern this poorly constructed passage. When finally I made sense of it, I was horrified to realize that Ms. Gross wants our children to believe that "community helpers" are unilaterally SAFE. Not only, her words imply, should they not be questioned but they are the ones providing the right answers ("...teach you things are always not what they seem."). SAFER, even, than the "good" strangers. My children live in the same world where their peers are tragically molested every day by coaches, babysitters, neighbors, and many other "community helpers" (yes, even doctors and dentists!) and "safe strangers." My ambition is to impart clear and sensible rules to help keep them safe, something that must be accomplished without introducing prejudice and typecasting. This book sends out very dangerous messages, both in terms of safety and social responsibility.
Rating:
Summary: Some very dangerous advice...
Review: This is an excellent book to read to any and all children. It covers taking candy, secret words between parent and child, running away if someone tries to grab you, and who is a stranger, what do they look like. It's a cute book at the same time. Read in a sing-song rhythm it is one of my children's favorite books. Knowledge is power! Make your children aware, not scared and they have a better chance of being safe and sound.
Rating:
Summary: The BEST Stranger Safety Book I've seen!
Review: This is an excellent book to read to any and all children. It covers taking candy, secret words between parent and child, running away if someone tries to grab you, and who is a stranger, what do they look like. It's a cute book at the same time. Read in a sing-song rhythm it is one of my children's favorite books. Knowledge is power! Make your children aware, not scared and they have a better chance of being safe and sound.
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