Re: Book Hysteria

Reviewing Stacy's link to banned/challenged books, I came across a grade school classic, "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak.

I don't know if it was my tomboyish ways and my desire for adventure and exploration or my love of imagining a fantasy world for myself that drew me to this book, but the book made an indelible imprint in my childhood memories.

I remember the distinct illustration style, the forest backdrop, and dancing characters (well, I always thought they looked like dancing), yet I fail to remember the disturbing nature of the story at that age. Perhaps, this is where the artistry of the illustrator comes into play, whereas photos tend to convey literal depictions of the real world, leaving less to imagination. Also, the concept of death was foreign to me at that age, so the notion of the consequence of monsters eating up children probably didn't register in my mind then as they do now.

This was especially true after watching the movie adaption of the book. I think the fact that both the scale of the monsters and fine details of their physical features resembled so much realism that I left the movie theater intensely disturbed--as if I just finished watching a horror movie (I rarely watch horror movies!). Having experienced such a visual disturbance, contradicting my childhood memories of the book, I can understand how parents would object to their children reading this book, especially as a young child.