Rise Unruly Children!

Word of mouth has featured a few stories on children's books this week, what with "Where the Wild Things Are" opening in theaters on Friday. (I will be there at some point this weekend, by the way. Sans wolf costume.)

WWTA was one of apparently three Maurice Sendak books that are "all variations on the same theme: how children master various feelings" (quote found in Wikipedia entry on WWTA).

So it was only fitting that WoM spoke with Daniel Zalewski from The New Yorker about the trend he noticed in children's books, and then wrote about as a magazine piece.

The trend? Picture book parents who don't punish their children.

I'm not a parent. One of my parents was abusive, and the other was just scared. So it's difficult to say if a picture book parent exercising discipline over an unruly child would have even made my radar. Or if the picture book parent was more exasperated but loving. In my head wrong was wrong and you didn't test that.

Still, this reported change in picture book theme is fascinating to me. Just about as fascinating as the time a friend of mine who has just become a parent commented that the books he was reading to his child were lame.

"I don't remember children's books being like that when I was a kid," he said. "These books just ramble on and go no where."

That's a bit off topic though.

Could it be that authors are trying to highlight the glory of individuality and creativity in children? And that this should be respected and accepted by parents?

And truly, doesn't Max's mom in WWTA still say she loves him despite his bad behavior because, in the end, a dinner still hot on the plate is waiting for him when he sails back into his room? Or is it different because he got sent to his room for bad behavior in the first place?

There is at least once a day when I laugh out loud at work because I can hear the children in the classroom across the hall doing something that children do. Sometimes there is screaming, sometimes there is singing, rarely is there quiet, always there is an attempt to maintain some sort of order.

So, how to discipline without stifling?

Or, do children recognize the picture book for what it is? A story; a short fantasy to escape from the confines of parents and rules.

One thing I'm not sure Zalewski touched on was if he asked his own children what they thought of the story once the reading was done. And if the trend is a problem, or just a trend.

Either way, I'm making my escape on Friday. Maybe I'll learn something about my own anger. Most likely I'll just lose myself in a book made real on the screen and set sail in my own wolf costume to befriend some monsters of my own.