Banned Book Review #12
Written by ediblewoman.
Of all the silly things! Maurice Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen is a beautiful, dreamy tale in which a kitchen becomes a super-sized city presided over by bumbling bakers. Mickey falls into the kitchen and has an adventure. Unfortunately, on the way down to the night kitchen, he falls out of his clothes, which is what landed it on the list of the top 25 most contested books.
Nudity in the kitchen is admittedly weird, but if Mickey had remained in his pajamas, falling into a bowl of batter would have left him a sticky mess. He would not have been able to put on his dough costume, and he would not have returned to bed “cakefree and dried.” The choice to have him naked in the kitchen was a simple plot development device, and not some subtle pedophiliac message, as some parents claim.
Children will take notice any time there is nudity in a book. They are curious about their bodies, and they so seldom see representations of the naked form that it inevitably inspires questions. Parents who feel shame about their bodies will have difficulty with this book; Mickey is anatomically correct. Parents who don’t mind answering questions about the body will love it. Once the child’s questions about Mickey’s nudity are answered, they absorb the dream world of the night kitchen as if taking in a visual lullaby.
The book must be read with Sendak’s poetic sensibility in mind. This is not Dr. Seuss; it is more along the lines of Federico Garcia Lorca. There is rhythm and a sort of musicality, but it is not an easy iambic pentameter. The free-verse form can be off-putting for some readers, but it serves to highlight the rollicking refrain, which kids love to chant, “Milk in the batter! Milk in the batter! We bake cake and nothing’s the matter!”
If the book were by another author, I would probably give it five stars. Sendak has set the bar too high for himself, though. Where the Wild Things Are remains the standard of perfection in children’s literature. In the Night Kitchen is good, but it’s no Wild Things. I give it four stars.
In the Night Kitchen
