View Full Version : 10 Picture Books that Probably Scarred Me for Life
I've spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about what constitutes appropriate children's literature. Often, when I recommend an awesome book to a parent, they page through it and then hand it back with a funny, distrusting look.
Or, better yet, return it the next day saying that the poor child had nightmares all night.
That didn't happen to me. I loved this stuff.
Sycophant
06-17-2009, 07:38 PM
Oh, man. This should be good.
The Digging-est Dog did a number on me.
The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/drseuss_butter-battle-book.jpg
What better way to begin than with a book that ends in the annihilation of the human race?
Story: Two peoples (the Zooks and the Yooks) disagree on the correct way to eat bread, butter side up, or butter side down. So, they start killing each other.
Scary Stuff: Genocide, the Cold War, the Arms Race, Mutually Assured Destruction, etc.
Why I love it: Dr. Seuss, who is perfectly brilliant all the time, is no stranger to some darker themes (The Lorax, etc.) But I'm not sure he ever got more pessimistic than this one. At the same time, it clearly and compassionately explains, in simple terms, how something simple and trivial can escalate into, essentially, nuclear war.
I've often heard this book criticized that kids won't "get it." Don't be silly. Children are much smarter than most people think.
Sycophant
06-17-2009, 07:53 PM
Excellent selection. Kids are indeed often smarter than adults usually estimate. That book (or rather the TV special it inspired, which I saw first) was very formative for me, and in a good way. Disturbing stuff, nonetheless.
Drummer Hoff by Barbara and Ed Emberley
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/l_54c1f05f707bbdd0f04e5abd9183 e005.jpg
Look at those illustrations. It came out in 1968, and I assume everyone was on drugs.
Story: Very, very simple. A sequence of military men prepare a cannon to fire. But Drummer Hoff fires it off.
Scary Stuff: Violence, psychedelic pictures.
Why I love it: Bizzarely enough, this book has spawned quite a debate about whether it is pro-war or anti-war. I see it not only as anti-war, but as an explanation on how division of responsibility leads to these men doing something violent that none of them would have done individually. (Colonel Chowder need only bring the powder, so he is not responsible, because Drummer Hoff fired it off.) This particular argument was used by my sister, with citation, doing graduate work in International Peace Relations.
But the dust jacket of the book paints it as being a pro-war, patriotic book. It claims that the book "will inspire a smart salute and a march about the room". Apparently by people who had not read it.
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/in_the_night_kitchen.jpg
Maurice Sendak is my favorite children's author and illustrator. He is regularly disturbing. Much has been made of his Where the Wild Things Are, but that is quite tame compared to the two Sendaks that made this list. And some of his books are downright nonsensical (See: We are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy.)
Story: Mickey is asleep and dreams that he is being menaced by three freakish cooks. He makes an airplane out of dough and escapes.
Scary Stuff: Cannibalism, dream and trance logic, copious child nudity.
Why I love it: Let's start with the most obvious controversy. No child I have ever known would be disturbed by a not-very-detailed drawing of a naked child. The situation is not obscene in any way. Only adults have a complete tizzy over this. GET OVER IT.
What is far scarier are giant cooks trying to cook and eat a little boy. But, at the same time, the plot is probably similar (and therefore understandable) to dreams that children have all the time. Plus, he escapes by his wits.
Also, the drawings and the words are just gorgeous. Love it.
I'M IN THE MILK, AND THE MILK'S IN ME.
The Moon's Revenge by Joan Aiker, illustrated by Alan Lee
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/Alan13.jpg
I really wish I could have found better pictures of the inside of this book. The illustrations are gorgeous, by Alan Lee-- the Tolkien guy.
Story: Sep, a young boy, wants to be a fiddler. So, he throws seven shoes a the moon, who gets pissed off and curses him to go barefoot for seven years, and makes it so his sister can't talk. Also, a dragon. (The plot isn't particularly coherent.)
Scary stuff: The illustration of the moon coming into Sep's room to extract revenge is terrifying. Also, ghosts, scary dragons, and general eeriness.
Why I love it: Yet another book that follows "dream logic" instead of conventional storytelling. The pictures are moving and rich, if consistently creepy.
Spinal
06-17-2009, 08:46 PM
The Butter Battle Book is second only to The Lorax in terms of Seussian awesomeness. Guess I like 'em dark.
And slightly off-topic, Mara, have you read Sendak's collaboration with Tony Kushner, Brundibar?
Also, there's a book that makes this list for me, but I'll hold off in case it's on your list.
Outside Over There by Maurice Sendak
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/OutsideOverThere.jpg
This is one of my five favorite books of all time. I could probably recite it from memory. I wrote a stylistics paper on it in college. It's sort of an obsession.
Story: While her father is absent, and her mother distraught with grief, Ida is left to care for her baby sister. In a moment of distraction, her sister is kidnapped by goblins, and Ida has to get her back. (Yes, in care you are curious, Labyrinth rips this off pretty hardcore.)
Scary stuff: Baby is kidnapped by goblins, and they leave a freakish-looking changeling. There is an odd dream-like sequence of floating through the air, and goblins (who look exactly like babies) are tricked and killed. Also, both girls have essentially been abandoned by their parents.
Why I love it: Beautifully written. The illustrations are also lovely.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/coll-sendak1.jpg
I have a deep and close relationship with my siblings, and I identified strongly with Ida trying to save her sister.
And slightly off-topic, Mara, have you read Sendak's collaboration with Tony Kushner, Brundibar?
No, but I will check it out. Looks like good ol' freakish Maurice.
Also, there's a book that makes this list for me, but I'll hold off in case it's on your list.
I'm going alphabetically by title, so if I've passed it, feel free! I'm always looking for more scary stuff.
By pure, alphabetic coincidence, the next three books are all by the same author. In fact, I probably could have made a top 10 list of just his books.
Can you guess who?
Raiders
06-18-2009, 01:26 PM
William Steig?
William Steig?
You are an intelligent man.
For the record, there was one Steig book that I considered putting on this list but then discarded, because I didn't really enjoy it. It's called The Zabajaba Jungle and it really is just too bizarre. One review I found compared it to Kafka, which is probably fairly apt, if it was a story that Kafka wrote while nine years old and more than a little drunk.
Rotten Island by William Steig
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/rotten.jpg
Steig has a distinctive, unusual illustration style. He also has a deeply disturbing sense of narrative. Sometimes, he tones both of these way down, like in Dr. Desoto.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/DrDesoto.jpg
Look how normal!
But anyone can do normal. Steig is at his best when he is extravagantly, revoltingly insane.
Story: This book isn't a story at all. It's an excuse for Steig to draw the most horrible, wonderful things he can imagine.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/rotten2.jpg
Sometimes over two pages.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/2631806068_d5180258f3.jpg
Scary stuff: Violence and gore.
Why I love it: Because it's awesome. As a child, I would just stare at those pictures for hours, finding more and more details and sub-plots.
Note: apparently new editions of Rotten Island have been bowdlerized.
From an Amazon comment:
Compare the wreckage in the first edition: "It went on and on and on and one day it was finally over. Everyone had succeeded in killing everyone else off. The last ugly ogre had given his last gasp and the last serpent breathed its last flame, and the island was a gigantic heap of dead, scaly, thorny, fanged, horned, bug-eyed, barbed, bristling, saw-toothed carcasses, lying in ashes and embers, burning and giving off a dark, horrible smoke. And then there was nothing but hot ashes."
This is replaced in the Godine version by: "It went on and on and on, and one day it was all over. There was nothing left but smoke and smouldering ashes."
BOO ON THAT.
Shrek! by William Steig
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/william-steig-shrek.jpg
Sometime in 2000/2001, my sister and I went into the lobby of a movie theater and were confronted with a huge cardboard promotional for a film called Shrek.
We stared at it. "Like the book?" I asked.
"He's green," she replied doubtfully. "It could be from the book."
"But, how could they make a movie out of the book?" I wondered. "It wouldn't make any sense."
Answer: by changing absolutely everything.
Story: A horrible, evil-loving ogre named Shrek wanders through the countryside, trying to wreak as much havoc as possible. He eventually finds a princess even uglier than himself and they live happily ever after, scaring the pants off of all who fell afoul of them.
Scary stuff: Violence, malice, theft, murder, witchcraft, etc. etc.
Why I love it: This book understands that there is a part of the human psyche that really does prefer the villian. S/he is always more interesting than the hero, and the more rotten they are, the more we love them. This book is cathartic for those who are in a foul mood.
Just for fun, I love this picture, which shows Shrek having a nightmare about children and sunshine and buttercups. Horrible!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/Conn600.jpg
Spinky Sulks by William Steig
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/steigspinkysulks.jpg
If you believe that children's books need a moral and should be used to teach children correct behavior, for goodness' sake, do not read this book.
Story: Spinky is insulted by his family for some unknown reason. He takes it out by going into a massive sulk that lasts for weeks, where he refused to speak to his family or look at them, or do anything by lie still. His family goes to extreme measures to try and appease him, giving him food and presents, visits from grandma, etc. But he will not forgive. They are dead to him. He finally reconciles with them briefly, until they manage to inadvertently insult him again.
Scary Stuff: Extremely bad behavior. Alienation of affection.
Why I love it: Well, here you start getting into the argument from my first post: what is appropriate children's literature? If your main reason for reading to your children is to indoctrinate them with good behavior, then stay away from this one.
But I think that children need to read for the same reason as adults. And I think the C. S. Lewis explained that need with admirable clarity: "We read to know we are not alone."
The reason this book was important to me was that Spinky demonstrated (in an admittedly exaggerated and funny way) what I felt once or twice a week in my own life. Children feel so impotent in a grown up world. They have limited ways of retaliation against things that they find humiliating. Spinky's epic sulk is what I secretly wished that I could do: just punish everyone, forever.
Of course, that's not how it works in the real world. We forgive and forget and move on. But books like this let me know that I wasn't alone.
Raiders
06-18-2009, 02:36 PM
I suppose it doesn't belong on this list, but Steig's Sylvester and the Magic Pebble is still a favorite of mine.
I suppose it doesn't belong on this list, but Steig's Sylvester and the Magic Pebble is still a favorite of mine.
It's a great book, although admittedly not as twisted as some of his stories.
Oddly enough, it's one of the most challenged children's books, because apparently the policemen are depicted as pigs.
There's a Nightmare in my Closet by Mercer Mayer
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/FC0803786824.jpg
Our copy of this book is so destroyed that the tape is being held on with more tape.
Story: A young boy is convinced there is a nightmare in his closet. And, sure enough, there is. It's huge and ugly, but after a violent confrontation, the boy takes pity on the injured beast and they become friends. Unfortunately, that monster is promptly replaced in the closet by a new one.
Scary Stuff: Monsters, violence, things that go bump in the night.
Why I love it anyway: Even though this book is vilified on Amazon for confirming children's nighttime fears, I think it's pretty empowering that, in the end, the monster isn't that scary at all.
I wish I had a picture of the monster crying pitifully after being injured. It's so cute.
The Wretched Stone by Chris Van Allsburg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/wretchedstone.jpg
Ah, Chris Van Allsburg. He's another writer where I could have chosen more of his books, like Jumanji, or Just a Dream, or The Sweetest Fig. Those were all good, but this was the one that I found the most disturbing, and the most fascinating.
Story: A group of sailors find a stone that captivates them. They stare at it obsessively until they turn into monkeys.
Scary stuff: People turning into monkeys.
Why I love it: Van Allsburg, unlike most of the author/illustrators in this thread, always chooses a very realistic style of writing and painting. That makes it much, much creepier. I couldn't find the actual picture of the monkey-men watching the stone, but it's unnerving. Apparently the book is an allegory for television, but really it could be taken as anything that becomes an obsession and robs people of their humanity.
Side note: I knew Chris Van Allsburg's cousin when I was growing up in Michigan. He was a fascinating man, also a professional artist, although less successful.
That's my list! Your turn. What creepy books did you love as a child? Or, which ones frightened you half to death?
Wryan
06-18-2009, 04:14 PM
Great list. I regret I cannot contribute as I can't recall most of the books I read as a child, sans Seuss/Sendak, and I don't read them at present. Alan Lee is awesome. You should check out John Howe too. Howe's a fascinating guy all around the edges anyway.
Raiders
06-18-2009, 04:29 PM
Oh I so remember The Wretched Stone from like, 3rd grade. I didn't like it then, but then again it was also criticizing the TV where I spent most of my time.
megladon8
06-18-2009, 05:00 PM
Of all these books, I've only read "The Butter Battle Book".
:sad:
Mysterious Dude
06-18-2009, 05:33 PM
This is a different kind of "scarring," I guess, but it definitely affected me:
http://www.thereadingnook.com/image_manager/attributes/image/image_3/0395664152_large.jpg
Dad and his son live in an airport, cuz they got no home.
Spinal
06-18-2009, 05:46 PM
Book I was thinking of was Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/tikki2.jpg
Tikki Tikki Tembo falls down the well and, while his life hangs in the balance, his brother Chang rushes to get help. But since Chang is the younger brother, he is expected to show respect for his older sibling by using his full name, which is Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo. And Chang is so flustered that he can't get the whole name out.
What I remember strongly from my childhood is the page where the old man is upset to be awakened from a spectacular dream. And his mother thinks he's bewitched by evil spirits! I could totally relate to being a kid and having something important to say and the horror of not being able to communicate it to an adult.
Here's a Youtube video of the story being read with pictures from the book. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOeLq01J6Uo)
Spinal: I love that book! I had completely forgotten it. Pretty scary stuff, with the boy down the well.
Dad and his son live in an airport, cuz they got no home.
Well, that's... depressing.
Well, that's... depressing.
Some quick research on Eve Bunting convinces me that she is running a campaign encouraging child suicides. Her books are all about death and illegal immigration and war and depression.
Kurosawa Fan
06-18-2009, 10:12 PM
LOVE There's a Nightmare in My Closet! My son has my old copy and we've read it several times.
monolith94
06-22-2009, 02:10 PM
Man, The Wretched Stone is so damn good. Soooo damn good.
Have you read Steig's Dominic? Profound stuff.
Have you read Steig's Dominic? Profound stuff.
Yes, actually, I put it on this (http://www.match-cut.org/showthread.php?t=1617) list.
Yes, actually, I put it on this (http://www.match-cut.org/showthread.php?t=1617) list.
I read that thread and didn't see that one! I will look over it again.
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