Drama Duck was reading a book about sharks1 to Baby Duck last night for his bedtime story. She’s an advanced reader for her age but she tends to slide over unfamiliar words instead of stopping and trying to figure them out.
I could hear her from the next room, her voice full of expression:
“The average hammerhead shark is about eleven feet long. It is easily identified by its superwide head. The hammerhead’s eyes are at either end of its head, giving it great binocular vision. Hammerheads eat fish, squid, octopuses, cri-Christians and other sharks.”
Christians? Seems a tad exclusive of them. Shame the ancient Romans didn’t know about this dietary quirk. When they got tired of throwing Christians to the lions, they could have thrown them to the hammerheads instead. Although “Christians to the hammerheads!” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
After a moment’s thought I realised that the word she’d stumbled on must be “crustaceans”. I suppose it is a tricky one. Christians of the world can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that they’re no more likely to become a shark’s lunch than the Buddhists, Muslims, aetheists and everybody else after all.
1. The Magic School Bus: The Great Shark Escape by Jennifer Johnston
Whew. For a moment there, the undersea world was on the edge of mass conversion. 😉
–writerjenn
Too funny! 🙂
My kids love the Magic School Bus series. We’ve checked out a zillion from the library, but I don’t think we’ve gotten to this one. I’ll have to keep an eye out.
I nearly choked laughing!
I must tell you, Drama Duck was indignant when she read this post. “I did not say ‘Christians’!” But I know what I heard, and the undersea world was indeed a more perilous place there for a while.