The Boy Who Ate Around

Children's books are near and dear to my heart. From the time Lennon was born I read to him. We still have the hundreds of books we've bought for him over the years. Now that I am babysitting I get to read them all over again! The book shown above is one of my favorites. As a parent though, it makes you wonder if you are warping your child's little brain by reading it to them.
It borders on inappropriate with it's story about a little boy who doesn't like what his parents are serving him for dinner so he imagines himself as a ferocious monster who eats everything BUT the food on his plate. This includes his parents, the president, the school and children in it, and every country imaginable.
Now don't get me wrong, I like a good horror story.... but do I want to instill these values in a small child? Is it ok to teach them that if they don't like something it's perfectly normal to cannibalize and destroy every person and place around them?
The other disturbing part about this book is that every time the boy eats something the author graces us with an adjective to describe how they tasted and what texture they were. Words like crunchy, salty, and squishy.
At the end of the book the boy is all alone and realizes that perhaps his killing spree wasn't such a good idea after all. So he regurgitates up everything he devoured and is happily rewarded with an ice cream sundae from his pushover parents.
My son loved this book when he was little but everytime I read it I became a little concerned that I was slowly turning him into a Jeffrey Dahmer. I was waiting for the moment when I would serve him vegetables and he would come after me with his knife and fork and dig in.
I'm all for originality, I really am. But what happened to books like Frog and Toad, and Little Bear? You know, those books that gave you that cozy feeling of love and fun. Now when you read to your child you have to lock them in their room afterwards and sleep next to your shotgun.....just waiting....waiting for the moment they choose to heed the words you've read to them.