>Shoot me now.

by Roger Sutton
Mar 09, 2009 | Filed in Articles & Opinion
>While I was running yesterday in the glorious weather (ha ha, I know) I came upon a woman walking her dog, a little cattle-dog mix-thing. Hyper but cute. The dog was desperate to come over to me and say hello, so I stopped and played with her for a minute. The woman started talking to the dog: "Yes! Yes! You like him 'cause he looks like your grandfather! Yes!" She then explained that she meant her father of course, like that made anything any better.

I felt . . . seasoned again this morning while pawing through the review carts, and remembering when a book about anorexia (Deborah Hautzig's Second Star to the Right) or lesbian mothers (some Norma Klein novel) was still cause for comment--and review--simply by virtue of its subject. So is it a good thing or a bad thing that books on such topics can now pass unremarked?
Roger Sutton
Roger Sutton

Editor Emeritus Roger Sutton was editor in chief of The Horn Book, Inc., from 1996-2021. He was previously editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books and a children's and young adult librarian. He received his MA in library science from the University of Chicago in 1982 and a BA from Pitzer College in 1978.

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Anonymous

>Roger, you could have given her nightmares with a vacant grin and the response: "I'm dead now."

Posted : Mar 17, 2009 02:19

melanie

>That's so adorably humbling, ain't it? Kids are great for ego and attitude adjustments.

A seven year old said my art was just ok, he liked Renoir better. Tee hee.

Posted : Mar 13, 2009 05:29

Roger Sutton

>Yesterday, the little girl downstairs asked me "Are you older than my parents?"

"Yes."

"Are you old enough to be dead soon?"

Posted : Mar 13, 2009 01:09

Andy Laties

>In the category of sit-up-and-take-notice transgressive body-part depiction, I think Sendak's "In The Night Kitchen" is the sole place in American Children's Literature for male anatomical explicitness.

That was published in 1970. The world did not end. The subject's depiction remains de-facto unacceptable.

Posted : Mar 11, 2009 10:51

Andy Laties

>Hee-hee. Rebecca says Hi. Come visit in Amherst -- I run the shop at Eric Carle Museum.

Hey I thought of a great, transgressive but totally obvious bestselling baby book that has never been written and will never be published (at least in USA). The title is: "Nipples, Nipples, Nipples!" I envision the full Fox/Oxenbury multicultural treatment (Genichifo Yagyu's title "Breasts" published in US by Kane-Miller unfortunately doesn't really do this job.)

Roger's blog is a hothouse for trouble.

Posted : Mar 11, 2009 07:37

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