Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff

Believe it or not, Syd Hoff’s been in the news quite a lot lately. Not bad for a pronounced children’s literature 1930s Communist, eh? You could be forgiven for not knowing a lot about Syd Hoff. Honestly, I’d managed to skate through a significant portion of my life remaining unaware of him apart from the fact that there was some racist stuff at the beginning of the original editions of Danny and the Dinosaur. Now that book series is being turned into a movie series and a book of his early Communist comics (which are, frankly, hilarious) are being reprinted with a new edition of The Ruling Clawss. Seemed to me like a perfectly opportune time to visit the dino in question.

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Show Notes:

Here’s the blog post I allude to about AI sneaking into our libraries. This is Sondra Eklund’s post on her site Sonder Books and it is WELL worth reading!

Here is The Ruling Clawss with its Introduction by the respected and beloved Phil Nel. I HIGHLY recommend that you get your hands on a copy.

Wow. You open this book and not only do you find images of “Indians” and “Eskimos” at the beginning of this book, but a plethora of guns as well!

UPDATE: Debbie Reese is the one who examines this kind of thing the closest. She says:

“I’ve written about that “He saw Indians” page a lot.

Go see this page, where I note changes over time. In one recent printing, the Indian and Eskimo are gone, and so are the guns. 

https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2021/07/indians-eskimos-and-guns-in-danny-and.html“

Can we talk about how this museum is even laid out? Sarcophaguses next to dinos?

Check out those sweet talkin’ eyelashes.

Keep your eye on these shifty characters. I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them.

Contrary to popular opinion, people were a LOT more laid back in the late 50s. These people are clearly blitzed out of their freakin’ minds.

WHAT, precisely, is the dino in this book? Kate says he’s an Argentinosaurus but I’d like to hear alternative opinions on the matter.

Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate