In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak

I might be completely unpopular for saying this, but I didn't like this story at all. I have read several of Sendak's works in the past and have been a fan (I mean hello, Where the Wild Things Are is awesome). There isn't a whole lot in this story that made sense to me--the whole basis is to be an explanation on why we have cake every morning? I don't know where this little Mickey lives, but there isn't cake at my house every morning (or sadly, even once a week).

I thought it was interesting how Sendak's Jewish heritage played a role in his portrayals of the Hitleresk bakers baking Mickey in an oven--a subtle reference to the autrocities of the Holocaust. As a casual reader, I never would have made such a serious connection in a "dream" book like this. Reading about the sources of controversy definitely pointed this out to me upon further investigation. Besides this, controversy around the book is partly due to Mickey "falling out" of his clothes and continuing to be naked for everyone to see for the rest of the book.

Having the young child naked the rest of the book, with his manhood on display, could be disturbing to some readers. I personally didn't find this offensive, but a bit odd and surprising. I had looked at a list of controversial books online and was aware before opening it the cloud surrounding the book. Walking into Barnes and Noble, I wouldn't expect frontal nudity from a picture book being prominently displayed with other Maurice Sendak books. The book won the Best Illustrated Children's Book from the New York Times in 1970--an interesting time period to be sure. It also won the Caldecott Award for outstanding illustrations--interesting. I did feel like the book flowed in a trippy, stream of consciousness way--possibly a side affect of the 70's culture.

I wouldn't buy this book to be in my classroom library, but wouldn't mind if it was included. I think that kids are curious about things like this and can see the same kind of thing if they look at a science book about the human body in much more detail. I don't think that kids need to be sheltered from things like this because then we create a sense of dirtiness to something as elemental as the human body. We are body conscious enough, we don't need to teach our very young children that their bodies should be a source of embarrassment. Of course we don't want kids on the playground getting naked to show their stuff, but natural curiousity is always going to be there. I would not be uncomfortable with this book, but probably wouldn't make a big deal about it. I wouldn't use it in book talks, read alouds, or literacy circles for young elementary students, but would be OK as a part of my library collection. There is a wide variety of literature available and some kids might not even care. Sometimes we get offended about issues that are unimportant to the actual people it could affect.