This book was really memorable for me as a child. As a flip through it there are a few key elements that made it really important. 1) The colors. They are deep, saturated blues, greens, and purples. You can stare at the pages and immerse yourself in the sea.
2) The details. "He hung his hat on the hook for his hat, and his rope on the hook for his rope, and his pants on the hook for his pants, and his coat on the hook for his coat, and his spyglass on the hook for his spyglass, and he put his shoes under his bed, and got into bed, which was a bunk, and went to sleep." There were so many little things to look at! I thought it was wonderful and still do.
3) Okay, who doesn't love building forts as a kid. This dog builds his own fort! Then he survives on his own--he fishes and lives by himself by the seashore. This is a kid's dream. Of course you can't have a child doing these things because where is the parent? This is when you put an animal in the child's place, so that the animal can live out the child's fantasy without some parent shouting out child abuse! (and of course they'd be right).
4) Foreign lands! So cool.
5) I loved this shoe page.
6) Finally, there's a song at the back to sing and my mom used to sing it to us every time she finished the book. "I am Scupers The Sailer Dog--"
I have such a strong memory of watching this part of this strange movie, based on a Ray Bradbury book, as a kid:
I'll never forget the grandmother pouring milk from her finger! It wasn't just strange, it was a little creepy but at the same time the grandmother was very warm and loving. What a strange combination! I don't think you can find that in a movie today. The same goes for books. I posted below about In The Night Kitchen. It's strange, but fun and memorable. "Wacky" as my mom called it. Everything has to be so safe or a bunch of people will complain. But there has to be room somewhere for that kind of material so that children today can end up carrying around powerful memories like I do. Memories like that are important. Not everything has to be happy--it can be a little unsettling or off kilter at the same time. At least I think so.
When I asked my mom what some of my favorite books were as a kid she said, "You of course loved the wild and wacky, In The Night Kitchen," This spurred me to find this video:
And then of course I had to read the comments, some of which irritated the heck out of me:
That IS a weird book. I've come across it once b4 & thought what the??? Your comments on the book are hilarious! Well done!
At first i thought YOU had written the warped book, I kept looking at the cover to see if it really was an authentic main stream published book! Was the author on weird drugs? Is the author head of a pedaphile club?? Fantisy is fun in kids books, but this is more of a nightmare
zaniebobanie 2 years ago It's sort of a classic -- same guy wrote "Where the Wild Things Are" -- but a very strange classic.
VMKPRO 2 years ago Glad you liked it. An Owen classic...
DadLabs 2 years ago Highest Rated Comments I love this book. It was one of my favorites when I was little and is still one of my fav children's books. I love the illustrations, and the surrealism. Because he's naked on like 4 pages makes it inapropriatte?? Come on. It's a children's book, and it's not like it's graphic. You prudes need to grow up.
NotanEmoJasmine 1 year ago 6 I know this comment is a year old but I just had to say something. Sendak has discussed this book due to all the idiodic controversy and purpsely drew the chefs with hitler mustaches baking the kid in an oven as a hidden haulocaust referance because of his Jewish heritage.
Excellent, very funny review. Exactly our reaction to the story when we first saw it! We have it animated on the "Where the Wild Things Are" DVD (animated version) and our son (2 yrs old) watches it over and over and over! We weren't sure if it was all a bit too surreal but he loves it
leepharps 2 months ago this is funny but the author is the same guy who wrote where the wild things are so... yea
Lubydo 2 months ago thumbs up!
billshots 1 year ago @NotanEmoJasmine THANK YOU
trembleweeds 1 year ago LMFAO, that was beyond hilarious!!!!!!!
desolate2 1 year ago this is hillarious
trishiz0 1 year ago That made me laugh so hard that someone actually came into my room and asked what was wrong. Hilarious.
ChowakeePsycho 1 year ago Just a small correction, those 3 bakers were actually supposed to look like Oliver Hardy, not Hitler.
This is a sick homo book. they even got hitler chefs in it. OMG!
phantastickyle 2 years ago they showed his penis in a kids book....
Fantastic. I love how the discomfort just multiplies with every page.
weird book heatherbreyerhorse -----------------
I really hope that YouTube does not represent the cross population of America. Unfortunately, after working in retail for so long, I'm afraid that it does.
I remember this from childhood. They must have replayed it in the 80s. It's so odd and obviously drug inspired.
It burned into my memory I guess because it was so odd.
I remember the below movie that my dad rented for us kids when we were little. REALLY weird. A boy loses his hair after a great fright (first it turns white) and ghosts come to visit him to give him "the peanut butter solution" so that he can grow it back... only he makes the solution wrong and his hair grows like crazy. A painter guy kidnaps the boy to make paintbrushes out of his hair because his hair is magical. You can walk right into the painter's paintings. You can't make this stuff up!
This is the crazy part: It says a movie for the whole family. I DISTINCTLY remember one part of the movie. The boy's friend puts "the peanut butter" solution down his pants and grows pubic hair out his pant legs. Um.... This would never fly today!
Despite the insanity and the pubic hair incident, there's something missing in today's movies for kids and dear I say even books. They're too sterile and SAFE. You can't do this and you can't do that and a parent might complain about this or that and what you end up with and not much of anything! This is why I do nonfiction. There's something in telling a real story that is unusual that still excites me. People ask me constantly why I stopped writing fiction and this is why. Everything in fiction has been done and I'd just be repeating things. I want to do something new!
But this post isn't about me. I want to talk about kids' movies and books in general. I just think thinks have changed. They're very different. For better? For worse? What do you think?
