Bruce Handy

Just finished this in audio book form (a read I've been wanting to tend to for a while).

This book's author takes time to digest rather dismantle, understand alongside critique the work of the greatest children's writer's of the 20th century. The slogan with this book is about "reading children's literature as an adult". The funny thing about this statement is that at one period of my life I actually hated it with a passion. In my entirety of my teenage years, my exposure to children's media through my own upbringing, as well as being the oldest of 6 children, always kept the idea of imagination, fun, whimsy, absurdity, and general childlikeness very relevant and very present to me, in the best ways. It was a personal way for me to retain security in my identity as an alienated, creative, positive, moral kid.

I saw this title in a bookstore one day, and the Sendakian iconography of the cover obviously grappled me, a fan. But as I read through, the intellectualism that I sniffed in and throughout the book really, really strongly deterred me. The idea of reviewing such precious content as children's books through the lens of a cynical adult really disgusted me; 1) because of the aforementioned reasons, and 2) because I feared that if I read it, I would lose the ability to look at the books in the same way I did as a kid -- years of my life that are incredibly pure and precious to me, still. Hence, shelved this read became.

These days approaching my mid-20s, I understand the ways in which I invalidated certain bases of knowledge that I was too ignorant and disinterested to delve into -- to find the one's own curiousity in the ditch of anti-intellectualism is kind of surprisiing. There are only additives to be gained from learning more about the world around me (it's a cycle that's repeated in my life time and time again).

Sure I'm a little more cynical, self-depricating, and understanding of how the world doesn't care about me, but that's no justification to match the nihilism. I'm very appreciative and fascinated to learn about how all of these authors -- Suess, Sendak, White, --- all wrote those stories, not because they wanted to appeal to kids wants, but because they looked and found things in their adulthood that they felt deeply and needed to express in the unique medium of the illustrated storybook. This adds another layer of gratitidue in my enjoyment of these books, both in memory sitting with my Nonna, Mom, and Dad reading, and also now as a youg adulty myself. Things are darker and sadder since those days of little me in childhood, but that's how it goes I'm finding. There is peace to be made with the darkness of this world so that you can thoroughly enjoy and understand facets of life and yourself itself.

P.S. There book functions as a great delve into the stories, lives, and values of about 10+ writers, and, as such, should be treated as a very heartful adn detailed invitation to further explore the lives of these great authors. More later!… (plus d'informations)