Sugar and Spice, Indeed
Sugar and spice and everything nice…
It’s funny how we insist on seeing children as delicate, unsoiled flowers who can be crushed by the slightest change in the wind. I’m not saying children should be exposed to bad things, but they can’t be protected in a bubble, either.
Every time a book aimed at kids displays any sort of darkness or unpleasantness, adults protest until their voices drown out the pleas of their children asking for the book.
We hear about it every time a Harry Potter book comes out, or a classic like Alice in Wonderland is revisited, or when another child discovers the delights of Shel Silverstein, master poet for the kinder folk.
Did you ever notice that children like these kind of books, usually far more than anything ‘sweet?’ One of my favorite authors when I was a child—and still today—is Edward Gorey, the wonderful author and illustrator with the magnificent blend of dark humor and childish delight.
I adored The Gashleycrumb Tinies, Gorey’s take on an ‘alphabet’ book. Studies showed that children were much quicker to learn their letters with this book than with something ‘cute,’ but that didn’t stop parents from calling for a ban. Do parents just forget what it was like to be a kid?
Sadly, although I teach the …Tinies each semester, I have yet to find a student who has ever heard of Gorey. I hope this changes, and I really hope that children are still being naughty and reading what they’re not ‘supposed’ to.
I’ll print Gorey’s masterpiece here for you. You cannot get the full impact from just the words; you really need to look at the wonderfully macabre illustrations, which you can do here.
Basically, a mysterious stranger shows up to take 26 kids out for a Saturday adventure. The children all end up dying in wonderfully gruesome ways. And along the way, readers can learn the alphabet, or just delight in the whole affair.
B is for Basil assaulted by bears
C is for Clara who wasted away
D is for Desmond thrown out of a sleigh
E is for Ernest who choked on a peach
F is for Fanny sucked dry by a leech
G is for George smothered under a rug
H is for Hector done in by a thug
I is for Ida who took lye by mistake
J is for James who drowned in a lake
K is for Kate who was struck with an axe
M is for Maude who was swept out to see
N is for Neville who died of ennui
O is for Olive run through by an awl
P is for Prue trampled flat in a brawl
Q is for Quentin who was lost in a mire
R is for Rhoda consumed by a fire
S is for Susan who perished of fits
T is for Titus who flew into bits
U is for Unice who slipped down a drain
V is for Victor squashed under a train
W is for Winnie, embedded in ice
X is for Xerxes devoured by mice
and Z is for Zilla who drank too much gin.
Long live Gorey, and the children who love him.
4 Comments
Interesting… I just finished reading “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” to my oldest (6) a couple of weeks ago, and I noticed it was definitely darker than I remembered… particularly with things dealing with the Tin Woodsman. Let’s just say he uses that axe a lot…
No, I’ve never heard of him, although I think there would be an age limit on his books in my house. I was an avid reader of all things goulish as a kid and my mother would’ve been horrified at knowing what I was reading. She even objected to comics, so we read them in secret, too.
Heather–aha! You were a ‘naughty’ reader! And look how talented you turned out to be!
Jon–exactly! Those books are much different than the whitewashed movie versions…which would make a great topic, actually.