[ Frankly, I’d keep the toddlers away from the Brady Center website. One of the most dangerous things you can teach a child is that inanimate objects can harm them and that they have no mental or physical power over such objects. Such beliefs tend to breed frightened and dependent adults, of whom I think we’ve got enough. ]
Here is an idea for a book, “The Sharp Pointy Stick”.
Little Andrew was walking one day on his way from school and he finds a an old broken pool cue. It is sharp on one end. Andrew being a nice kid uses it to draw a hop scotch and uses it to play tic-tac-toe in his back yard and in the sandbox at the park with his friends.
Then the school bully find the other half of the broken pool cue and uses it to terrorize the other kids. The school principle (being a complete liberal jerkwad) doesn’t condemn the bully for his negative actions, but instead he blames the sticks, and takes away the sticks from both the bully and Andrew which makes all of the children sad. Andrew asks the principle why he took away his stick, and the principle says that sharp pointy sticks are dangerous. Andrew counters that he used his stick for good and the bully was not, so the bully should be punished and not the stick. The principle then gives Andrew detention for questioning his decision of banning sticks because he could be a bully too for wanting a stick.
The next day Andrew is ambushed by the bully in an alley way and the bully blames Andrew for the Principle taking away his sharp pointy stick. He starts to wail on Andrew and Andrew spots another sharp pointy stick. He grabs it and whacks the bully over the head and he runs away crying. The book ends with Andrew in the alley pondering that stick itself is not a evil object and the people who use the stick can either be good or evil and that is what matters.
The next day Andrew is ambushed by the bully in an alley way and the bully blames Andrew for the Principle taking away his sharp pointy stick. He starts to wail on Andrew and Andrew spots another sharp pointy stick. He grabs it and whacks the bully over the head and he runs away crying...
The bully runs home and complains to his mother, who is on the school board. She next calls the principal who immediately suspends Andrew for assaulting another student with a dangerous weapon. He then calls the police, who show up at the lad's house with an arrest warrant charging Andrew with felonious assault. Andrew's parents object because he's just a kid and was defending himself from a bully, but the police tell them they'll have to settle the matter before a judge.
Andrew is taken to the police station, booked and fingerprinted and his parents made to pay bail. At trial, the defense is denied the use of evidence regarding the bully's prior behavior as it is not relevant and there are were no witnesses to the fight. The bully's counsel presents his sad-looking, well-groomed client with a huge bandage on his head and claims that there's "no way of knowing" whether the damage to him might be permanent.
Andrew is convicted, expelled from school and because his parents cannot pay the exorbitant fine assessed by the judge, they must declare bankruptcy and default on their mortgage. And Andrew's classmates are so distraught at his situation that the principal agrees to call in grief counselors, as he wonders why kids are just so out of control these days.