What is going on in these books?

I've written before about one of our favorite bedtime books, Bedtime for Frances. The other night we started reading Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. Side note: my mother tells me that this book was somewhat controversial because the police in the book are represented as pigs (the title character is a donkey). I'm noticing an odd trend in these books. In both books the characters are animals - in Frances they are badgers in Sylvester they are donkeys. And in both books the parents are wearing clothes but the child is not. What's up with that? Is it only offensive for adult animals to be naked in books? Not that a naked badger is offensive, I'm just trying to figure out the rationale.

Oh and we have had this book called No No Yes Yes forever and my daughter just discovered it on the book shelf. I guess it's supposed to teach kids right and wrong - like the NO NO page shows a kid coloring on the wall and the dog and the corresponding YES YES page shows the kid coloring on paper. Well all this book has done is give my daughter the bright idea to walk around with her finger up her nose (something she never did before) and throw things in the toilet. So uh, good consumer testing whoever published that book.

Speaking of toilets that reminds me of a funny story about when my brother and I were little. We lived in a house that had an unfinished basement but had a 1/2 bath in the basement. Many of you probably know the kind - sort of scary and one you'd only use out of necessity. One day we were in the basement with my mom while she did laundry - I was 3 and he was 2. My mother noticed that the toilet in the 1/2 bath wouldn't flush and was starting to overflow. So she asked us "did somebody put something in the toilet?" My brother replied "not nails."