Samantha Rawlins, 27, bought a Hello Kitty dictionary for her daughter, and was shocked to see what was inside its pages.
Hello Kitty has been around since 1974, and little girls all over the world have been in love with the fluffy cat ever since. Several Hello Kitty products can be found everywhere — from bags, purses, watches, and jewelry to kitchen appliances to furniture.
Rawlins, who is from England, bought her 9-year-old girl Casey a Hello Kitty dictionary hoping that it would help her with her spelling, writing, and vocabulary. However, she was shocked to see one of the descriptions while browsing through the dictionary.
The word “necklace” in the dictionary had a definition that read, “A piece of jewellery which a woman wears around her neck.” However, there was an alternative description for the word.
“In South Africa, a name for a tyre filled with petrol which is placed round a person’s neck and set on fire in order to kill that person.”
Rawlins couldn’t believe what she had read from the Hello Kitty dictionary, which consists of 7,000 words. “What sort of thing is that for little girls to read? I’m glad I spotted it before they did, how would I explain that to a child?”
Mirror UK reported that the dictionary was published by Harper Collins. On the back of the book, the description says that the dictionary helps children with their pronunciation, punctuation, spelling, and grammar. Samantha also said, “Kids may need to learn about the world, but not at that age and not in a Hello Kitty book that is clearly targeted at little ones.”
Any parent would never think that Hello Kitty products would contain inappropriate content for children. “Hello Kitty is aimed at little girls with all the cute, cuddly animals and things. I didn’t think for a moment there would be anything like this in there,” Samantha said.
National Headlines also wrote the description of the dictionary. “This is a school dictionary with a difference: it’s big, bling and very Hello Kitty! Cupcakes and rainbows, bumblebees and, of course, Hello Kitty and her friends decorate every page.”
The publisher of the Hello Kitty dictionary has already been made aware of the situation. A spokesperson said that they have already withdrawn the dictionary from sale and pulped all the existing copies. “It was available in three forms and all have been pulped. It is no longer available from Harper Collins. If any are still around they are old copies being resold,” the spokesperson said.
[Image via Amazon ]