[smygo] Top 6 "Subversive" Children's Books
Dan Clore
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Christopher's Top 6 Subversive Children's Books
Working Assets staff - Working for Change
07.24.02 - Politics guru Christopher Scheer keeps a lively
library for his two-and-a-half-year-old son.
Every year, hundreds of books arrive in that section at the
back of your local bookstore where the chairs are tiny and
the colors are bright. Most of these will be quickly
forgotten, having failed to win the joint affections of
adults (who have the money) and children (who have the
time). Of this surfeit, what sort of intellectual
stimulation should I offer my child? Orderly life lessons,
fables, morality plays and emotional primers? Humor or heft,
sunshine or night, deep thoughts or bon mots? How about
something that won't collect dust? Always a good bet,
classics stay evergreen because of their pan-generational
appeal, and a surprising number of them challenge readers to
subvert old paradigms and explore their fervid subconscious.
Here are five offerings.
Yertle the Turtle
by Dr. Seuss
Master propagandist Dr. Seuss' prototypical
anti-consumerist, pro-environment rant for kids is The
Lorax. Less dirge-like, however, and far more liberating is
this story of a tiny turtle fighting the ever-expanding
empire of one Yertle, a greedy tyrant who stacks his minions
sky-high. From the bottom of the heap our proletarian hero,
Mack cries out 'I know up on top you are seeing great
sights, but down on the bottom we, too, should have rights!'
When he throws off his towering burden, underdog-rooters
everywhere smile at Mack's awkward joy.
In the Night Kitchen
by Maurice Sendak
This anonymous review, from Amazon, says it better than I
can: 'Mickey's journey... gets deep under your skin because
Sendak plays with the tension between some of the most
powerful oppositions in childhood: the unknown vs. the
familiar, vulnerability vs. security, dependence vs.
empowerment, creativity vs. consumption... blend[ing]
surrealism, initiative, altruism, and a celebration of the
self in a way that no other picture book I've ever seen
has.'
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
by Roald Dahl
Most of us are more familiar with the movie, which, frankly,
scared the piss out of me for months afterwards when I first
saw it; the gruesome disappearances of Veruca Salt and the
rest gave me real nightmares. But like much of the best
children's literature from the Wizard of Oz to Alice in
Wonderland it seems to speak deeply to small people just
encountering the conundrum of their very existence, before
they are shellacked with the carapace of experience.
Watership Down
by Richard Adams
Some might argue that this is not actually a book for
children. However, unlike Animal Farm, you don't need to
tease out the deeper political and religious allegories to
just enjoy a journey with complex lapine seekers like Fiver,
a frail mystic, and Hazel, a model of democratic leadership.
This is also a deeply ecological book, showing readers the
interconnectedness of man and nature through the tiny beady
eyes of rabbits.
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret & Then Again, Maybe I
Won't
by Judy Blume
Nitpickers and prudes can and do find fault with this
matched set of boy-girl pubescent angst novels, but they
have easily made the transition from Gen X to Gens Y and Z.
Randy boys and girls find multiple uses for some of the
passages wink wink nudge nudge but most of all they feel
reassured they aren't the only ones for whom size (or
friends, parents, money, religion and body functions) seem
to matter a whole helluva lot.
--
Dan Clore
Now available: _The Unspeakable and Others_
All my fiction through 2001 and more. Intro by S.T. Joshi.
http://www.wildsidepress.com/index2.htm
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1587154838/thedanclorenecro
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