Wedding Bells for Rotten Ralph

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View books by Jack Gantos, Nicole Rubel.

Ralph is just a bit TOO rotten!! - Rated
Frankly, I'm not fond of Ralph... Call me an old granny, call me a bleeding heart, call me cute as a button (to borrow from "Cheers"), but Ralph just doesn't do it for me.

I can see where the average 7-9 year old (probably male) would find Ralph's antics hysterical and most likely would secretly wish to do the same thing THEMSELVES at a wedding party, but a good book does not this make.

One of the things I find bothersome is that Ralph-- as per usual-- destroys everything in his path WITH NO CONSEQUENCES WHATSOEVER. The snails, the ride down the aisle on the bride's dress, the knocking over the tent after too much wedding cake (a coworker of mine read the book and exclaimed, "He's DRUNK!!"); all of it Ralph does and not a single person (almost all of whom are White-- the book isn't exactly a paradigm of multiculturalism) chastises him for his behavior.

At the end, a tear in her eye, Ralph's owner, Sarah, tells Ralph he's ruined everything (no kidding!). Ralph, in a co-dependent, enabling-like move, presents Sarah with the bouquet he's caught and all is forgiven.

Maybe I'm being too stodgy and humorless, but I feel that children are generally ALREADY getting away with quite a bit without adult chastisement, so to hold up Ralph as an example of how to ruin EVERYTHING and still be forgiven is not, IMHO, a worthy ideal to pass along to our children.