My mom read Little Black Sambo to me when I was a kid, and one called Liza Lou and the Swamp Haunt. I found my copy of Liza Lou a couple of months ago and was kind of shocked. She's referred to as a pickaninny, and that's pretty much where I stopped reading. My mom is one of those people who argues that Sambo isn't a racist story. "He's not black! He's Indian, so it doesn't even count!" WTF? But I'm not racist, as far as I now, so maybe a couple of kids' books from another time didn't really affect (effect? I'm having a moemnt...) me all that much. Doesn't mean I really would rather not read them to my daughter.