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A review by mnstucki
Don't Tell the Grown-Ups: Subversive Children's Literature by Alison Lurie
4.0
3.5 stars.
You can definitely tell that this was originally published in 1990. The language is very academic and a little stiff. It helped me appreciate just how far nonfiction has come in the last 30 years.
Some of the essays are far better and more interesting than the others. My favorites were "Folktale Liberation," which talks quite a lot about the feminism that appeared in the original versions of many of the fairytales we know today; "Animal Liberation: Beatrix Potter"; "The Boy Who Couldn't Grow Up: James Barrie"; and "Back to Pooh Corner: A.A. Milne". I suppose I can't say for sure without actually reading all of the books themselves, but it seemed to me that the author spent a lot of time in many of the essays talking about the works for adults that were written by authors who happened to also write children's books.
My favorite passage in the whole book is still the one that [a:Bruce Handy|16060546|Bruce Handy|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] quoted in [b:Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children's Literature as an Adult|40753729|Wild Things The Joy of Reading Children's Literature as an Adult|Bruce Handy|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1531101421l/40753729._SX50_.jpg|53536950], which is where I learned about this book in the first place:
One interesting impression that I came away from the essay about Kate Greenaway with is that she was actually a pretty mediocre artist. This is kind of odd considering that the Kate Greenaway Medal is essentially the British equivalent of the Randolph Caldecott Medal in the U.S., given for "distinguished illustration in a book for children."
You can definitely tell that this was originally published in 1990. The language is very academic and a little stiff. It helped me appreciate just how far nonfiction has come in the last 30 years.
Some of the essays are far better and more interesting than the others. My favorites were "Folktale Liberation," which talks quite a lot about the feminism that appeared in the original versions of many of the fairytales we know today; "Animal Liberation: Beatrix Potter"; "The Boy Who Couldn't Grow Up: James Barrie"; and "Back to Pooh Corner: A.A. Milne". I suppose I can't say for sure without actually reading all of the books themselves, but it seemed to me that the author spent a lot of time in many of the essays talking about the works for adults that were written by authors who happened to also write children's books.
My favorite passage in the whole book is still the one that [a:Bruce Handy|16060546|Bruce Handy|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] quoted in [b:Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children's Literature as an Adult|40753729|Wild Things The Joy of Reading Children's Literature as an Adult|Bruce Handy|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1531101421l/40753729._SX50_.jpg|53536950], which is where I learned about this book in the first place:
Many...authors of juvenile classics...have had the ability to look at the world from below and note its less respectable aspects, just as little children playing on the floor can see the chewing gum stuck to the underside of polished mahogany tables and the hems of silk dresses held up with safety pins.
One interesting impression that I came away from the essay about Kate Greenaway with is that she was actually a pretty mediocre artist. This is kind of odd considering that the Kate Greenaway Medal is essentially the British equivalent of the Randolph Caldecott Medal in the U.S., given for "distinguished illustration in a book for children."