Today's Guardian features an article on children's picture book author Maurice Sendak speaking to the New York Times, in which he states emphatically that today's children's books (and I'm sure we're talking about books for young children) "aren't wild enough." Children's books are too safe and "are not always truthful or faithful to what's going on with children," says Sendak. In many ways, I think he may be right. In recommending his own book, Where The Wild Things Are' to parents for their children, I am frequently greeted with the response ,'On no. I don't want to frighten the child. S/He'd be too sensitive for that,' leaving me with the distinct impression that it mat actually be the adult that's worried. Too often we are lulled into a belief that a book that expresses wildness or danger or rebellion will frighten children, or more dangerously, 'give them ideas.' Those frightening thoughts, t...
