You probably already know the movie A Christmas Story, released in 1983 and based on the stories (and featuring the voiceover narration) of Jean Shepherd.
And if you’ve been hanging around here for a while, you may also know of my own childhood Christmas memories — and if so, you’ll know I share what seems to have been Shepherd’s take on Christmas.
To wit: holiday cheer, sentiment, wintertime hearths, great food, ornaments, family — yes, all that makes the holiday traditionally wonderful… but from the point of view of a kid, Christmas can elicit a certain hilarious cynicism.
It’s rather like that moment in A Christmas Story when Ralphie opens up the giftbox from Aunt Clara to find that she has sent him an oversized pink bunny suit. (“Aunt Clara had for years labored under the delusion that I was not only perpetually 4 years old, but also a girl.”) Ralphie’s Mom is delighted; Ralphie himself is horrified at the gift itself, and positively mortified when she insists that he try it on.
In this spirit of the dark, funny things underlying the sentimental, I’m excited to tell you of a book currently scheduled for release in 2012 by Candlewick Press, tentatively titled Wild Things! and subtitled The True, Untold Stories Behind the Most Beloved Children’s Books and Their Creators.
Especially, I’m excited to tell you about this because among its three co-authors will be friend of RAMH Julie Danielson, who comments here as Jules and, more importantly, curates the fabulous kidlit blog Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.
Says Jules:
…sophisticated (and even jaded) adults to get sentimental and dewey-eyed at the mere mention of children’s books. Now, if they didn’t, we wouldn’t have a book to write, so we’re not exactly complaining. But it’s still a curious phenomenon to us, that, for many, the topic conjures up a world of gumdrops, rainbows, and fluffy little bunnies that love you forever and like you for always. Our book aims to debunk the notion that all children’s book authors and illustrators live in such a world.
Here’s how Betsy Bird, another co-author and a blogger for School Library Journal, describes the project:
…we take an irreverent, but affectionate, look at the world of children’s books, noting how this once niche market has, in recent years, achieved mainstream interest and appeal. The wide-ranging text examines the history of subversive books (sometimes it’s all about who gets to eat and who gets eaten), uncovers a few literary mysteries (what, exactly, is inside the real Winnie-the-Pooh’s gastro-intestinal tract?), and delivers the scoop on nasty little things that cagey writers have slipped right past their editors. We’ll also tell you which author murdered her mum and which one wrote hardcore porn. There are tales about famous feuds and lawsuits, information on banned books, and descriptions of titles that were quietly changed after publication to remove offensive stereotypes. Oh, and did you know that Courtney Love’s grandmother is an award-winning children’s writer?
No word on whether Jules, Betsy, and third co-author Peter Sieruta (of the Collecting Children’s Books blog) — cagey writers all — will be trying to slip any little nasties past their own editor.
But these three seem to have the collective sensibilities of Ralphie viewing his bunny suit for the first time and, in the image at the right (cribbed from Peter Sieruta’s announcement), of Ramona Quimby in pink-bunny slippers. So we can hope!
This sounds like a lot of fun. I love true childhood stories; I’ve got several of my own on my fiction blog. They’re fun to read, fun to write, and they’re best when we put them in past tense and historical perspective. :)
Long live Ralphie.
John! This is so very kind. Thank you. I saw it yesterday, in fact, but had such a busy day (mostly due to work and my Kindergartener’s first speaking role in a school production as the STOCKING) that I went to sleep cursing myself for having forgotten to leave a comment. Anyway, thanks again.
We actually weren’t crazy about Wild Things as the title, but again it’s only a working one. I know, I know, I’m a rabid Sendak fan, but everyone seems to be using it these days. We have plenty of time, to say the least, to come up with a better one. Or, I dunno…we’ll see. Maybe Wild Things will stick. It’s certainly fitting.
Thanks again!
p.s. I’m so glad to be associated with a post that opens with Ralphie.
Darc: If I let myself, I could probably write nothing but true childhood stories. Or rather, “true,” in quotation marks — Lord only knows what truly happened decades ago. (A lot of family stories are remembered just so, I suspect, just because they’ve been repeated a certain way so many times.)
I really need to rummage through your fiction blog. I’ve been meaning to anyway — not just when you mention it in your regular posts — but as you say, this sort of story in particular (fictionalized or otherwise) is a lot of fun to read.
Jules: A… stocking, you say. The sort of occasion that makes your blog readers and FB friends happy that you’ve got such a good camera. :)
The phrase Wild Things — for anyone familiar with the book (and now, I guess, the film) — so neatly summons up images of smiling monsters, it’s no wonder that “everyone seems to be using it.” (If they really are; I haven’t seen it much, but as you know I’m not really in the kidlit loop… with one major bloggish exception.) On the other hand, three years from now, I wouldn’t be surprised if no one were using it. Trust the gut, either way!
[Zowie: my reCaptch says coauthor $420-million. Oh, and have I told you lately how desperately I wish I had a wealthy patron? Heh.]
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