Open Writing

Philosopher George Santayana said “Wisdom comes by disillusion,” but it also springs from intellectual curiosity, creative inspiration and other sources.

I acquired a bitter sort of wisdom working at the Texas Legislature for five years, but nearly three decades laboring in public libraries has provided many more positive and uplifting forms of acumen.

I began reading children’s books as an adult while in college when a professor with young children recommended the ever-irreverent Roald Dahl’s “James and the Giant Peach” to revive my flagging imagination. I read, was revived and have refreshed my creative juices with kiddy lit ever since.

Clare and I were married a year after I encountered “Giant Peach,” and we started our book collecting with James Marshall’s cheeky picture book, “The Stupids Die.” By the time baby Hannah arrived seven years later, there was a library of picture books waiting. One we didn’t share with the kids until much later was “Uncle Shelby’s ABZs.”

Shel Silverstein, “American poet, singer-songwriter, musician, composer, cartoonist, screenwriter and author of children’s books,” according to Wikipedia, wrote his satirical ABZs for adults. Even the most lovingly patient people, like nurses and special education teachers, need to vent from time to time by exchanging “you won’t believe this” stories. Parents are no different. Most find ABZs hilarious but wouldn’t want their children to encounter it on their own.

Here’s a sample: “E is for egg. … The egg is full of slimy gooey white stuff and icky yellow stuff. Do you like to eat eggs? E is also for Ernie. Ernie is the genie who lives in the ceiling. Ernie loves eggs. Take a nice fresh egg and throw it as high as you can and yell ‘Catch, Ernie! Catch the egg!’ And Ernie will reach down and catch the egg.”

The book includes directions for making voodoo dolls of teachers and bogus coupons for free ponies from the grocery store. It’s funnier than it sounds, and it was considered quite subversive when it was published in 1961.

We also bought normal works like the Seuss canon, Joanne Ryder’s “Mockingbird Morning,” Ruth Gannett’s “My Father’s Dragon,” Baum’s “Emerald City of Oz” and others. But for every cuddly book, we also acquired an outrageous one.

Maurice Sendak’s “In the Night Kitchen” and “Where the Wild Things Are” were considered avant-garde in the 1970s, just as Margaret Wise Brown’s “Goodnight, Moon” was considered strange in 1947, and Dr. Seuss’ “To Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street” a decade earlier.

They were all clever, engaging, well-written and appealed to grown-ups. After all, the kids don’t have much discretionary income, and children’s book publishers have learned to appeal to their real customer base.

They’re still at it, since a top selling book at Amazon.com is a picture book that won’t be published until mid-June. “Go the ---- to Sleep,” a 32-page satirical picture book by Adam Mansbach along the lines of “Uncle Shelby’s ABZs,” shot to number one on Amazon in mid-May.

This followed a New Yorker story describing how .pdf versions of the book circulated this spring among publishers, editors and literary agents who created so much buzz that the initial press run was increased from 10,000 to 150,000. It’s hip, too, being called “hilarious” by former Talking Head musician David Byrne and “total genius” by MacArthur Fellowship winner Jonathan Letham.

One new mother blogged, “I had the colicky baby from hell. She NEVER slept! I mean NEVER. The words that came out of my mouth were horrible, but the torture I endured was life altering. … If someone had given me this book I would have loved it. … I will be giving this as a gift.”

Its catchy title, handsome cover and short length make it attractive to impulse buyers. It also provides comic relief for stressed parents, just as Lisa Brown found with her line of board books, “Baby Mix Me A Drink,” “Baby Do My Banking,” etc.

Personal tastes and family values differ, and there are plenty of unusual, stimulating and enlightening picture books to fit them all. The objective, exercising the mind, is the point. Few things do that as well as a good book read to and by loved ones, especially books rife with the unexpected.

“Read, every day, something no one else is reading,” as Christopher Morley suggested. “It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.”