Anna Shares

Well, the book is out of print, so I don't know that there is much point to this, but I do want to defend this lovely little book. As the other commenters have noted, the ending of this book is a rather unexpected twist -- Anna seems to have learned what her mother wants her to do (she role-plays sharing with her toys), yet in the end she gets to do what she wants to do (she eats all the cookies). Thus, it is a story about the way that toddlers really act, not about how we wish they would act in some imaginary world where children magically learn complex social skills with just a few words of gentle encouragement. It's certainly not a book that will appeal to every parent. However, I look at Anna's actions as being very much like Cookie Monster on Sesame Street. Just because Cookie Monster is unfailingly selfish and can't control his desires doesn't mean that all of the Cookie Monster skits are horrible. The difference here is that the behavior is not as over-the-top silly as Cookie Monster's. But we and our child found it funny in the same way.