When I was a child, I was a great fan of the tongue-in-cheek “cautionary verses” of English poet Hilaire Belloc. I have written in the past about how, in the Alice books, Lewis Carroll took off after those heavy-handed Victorian moralists who tried to scare children into good behavior. Belloc did more of the same, […]
Tag Archives: Children
Moral Verse for Bad Little Children
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Cautionary Verses, Hilaire Belloc, Moral Instruction Comments closed
Honoring Our Inner Wild Rumpus
Illustration from Where the Wild Things Are I see that Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are (1963) has been turned into a film, which has led Slate columnist Jack Shafer to revisit a controversy about the book. Apparently Sendak still can’t let go of a critique by psychologist Bruno Bettelheim. I was surprised to learn […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Cat in the Hat, censorship, Dr. Seuss, Maaurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are Comments closed

