Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Baby Books

The last time I bought books for babies, there were only a few and they were written on stones. Well, almost. Anyone have a few suggestions from the newer batch. What did your baby like? Or for Bryon and his peers, what did you like? (Only kidding.)
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5 comments:

Stephen Blackmoore said...

Wait. You mean babies? Or toddlers? Because I remember "Harold and The Purple Crayon" being awesome. Tight pacing, excellent character development. The inner workings of Harold's psychosis as he creates a family and friends for his empty, void of a life with no tools to break free from insanity beside his "Purple Crayon", a clear symbol for his struggle to separate fantasy from reality and step back into the real world, sadly falling into the well further as his tool for escape merely drags him further into the nightmare landscape of his own mind. Toddler Noir at its best.

But it never really held a candle to Sendak's "Where The Wild Things Are".

The pain of Max's separation from his family as he's sent to the prison of his room, denied the nourishment and love he needs by none other than the domineering mother figure, forcing him to retreat to the halls of his own Id, where he calls upon the Wild Things of his own subconscious, harnessing them under his control with the chilling line, "Let the wild rumpus start!"

Finally, after becoming king of The Wild Things, and overcoming his inner Wild Man, he is ready to return to the sanctity of the womb, and, in a symbolic gesture of conformity and emasculation, he pulls down the hood of his Wolf Suit and re-enters society. Rewarded for his capitulation to domesticity by a meal and the closing line, "...where someone loved him best of all."

Or maybe I'm getting that mixed up with Iron John.

11:45 AM
Stephen Blackmoore said...

Oh, and Goodnight Moon and Pat The Bunny. Psycho thrillers, both of them. Highly recommend them.

11:47 AM
Christa M. Miller said...

Hamlet liked anything he could chew... cardboard books were especially yummy.

12:14 PM
Anonymous said...

Stephen-You need to do a book analyzing children's books in noir/hard-boiled tropes. That's a riot and you'll make a fortune.
Goodnight Moon and Pat, the Bunny were the first two I bought. My kids loved those two.
Christa-you can never overestimate the power of oral satisfaction.

12:59 PM
Anonymous said...

I don't remember much about the baby books. The first books I can remember are the Dr. Suess and the Disney books that came with the cool blue Dr. Suess book ends. The next thing I remember are young adult books.

Also, it's probably not too early to get the baby started on Hard Case Crime.

6:04 PM

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