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\lline{\hl It's Story Time}
\lline{by Mark Freeman}

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A lot of us found our first friends in books, back when we were�
eight or so. And stories are still a safe place to go, solo. The�
subject this time is kids books, my own subjective list, or at�
least ones I remembered being good back when I read them. Why not�
write in with your own faves? Or comment on these: they suck,�
they suck nice, whatever.

I'll skip the modern classics -- Maurice Sendak and S.E. Hinton's�
stuff, Madeleine L'Engle's middle class {\bf Wrinkle In Time}�
fantasies and Judy Blume's ``problem'' novels, C.S. Lewis' series�
of Narnia adventures and good old J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy.

Let's start with subversive picturebooks. These illustrated and�
easy to read books are written by authors who understand that�
kids, like everyone else, prefer to break all rules. {\bf Do Not�
Open} is by Brinton Turkle: its an old story about a bottle found�
on the beach, but this version provides fun, gory, explicit�
pictures of the monster that gets let out -- and it has an old�
woman hero. 

Harve and Margot Zemach's {\bf The Judge} features a disgustingly�
superior authority figure who won't listen to anyone's warnings�
about a monster and puts them all in jail for lying. Guess who�
gets his in the end? This is what's called a happy ending.

Thacher Hurd wrote and illustrated {\bf Mama Don't Allow}, about�
a possum kid whose saxaphone playing gets him kicked out of the�
house, and right into the arms of some high steppin' alligators�
in the swamp. {\bf Sylvester and the Magic Pebble} is the best�
example of William Steig's psycho fiction for grade schoolers,�
but all his books are good. This one is about a donkey who finds�
a magic wishing rock. Unfortunately, he gets scared and wishes he�
were a rock. Then there is {\bf DUCKS!} by Daniel Pinkwater (more�
from him later) which qualifies as the weirdest children's book�
I've ever seen. A duck bought in a candy store says it is really�
an angel and asserts that ``mothers and fathers usually lie.'' �
The narrator's blue collar dad and rock n roller mom are real�
classics. 

On the sweeter side is {\bf Rabbit Express} by Michel Gay (that's�
for sure). This bunny, with the prettiest butt in children's�
literature, is all alone on his birthday until he gets skates and�
finds his way into the big city and meets an equally cute cat. �
What lovely music they make together. Farther along, Mary Jordan�
has written the first picture book to help kids deal with a loved�
one dying of AIDS: {\bf Losing Uncle Tim}. It's a bit treacly,�
and the pic tures are too pastel for kids, but it deals with�
portraying an obviously gay uncle and with kids' questions like:�
can I catch it from him? how can he eat breakfast when he's in�
his coffin?

Switching to books written for older kids, but staying on the�
topic of life and death, there's Natalie Babbitt's {\bf Tuck�
Ever�lasting}. An overprotected girlchild runs away from home and�
finds a fountain in the woods whose waters provide eternal life. �
She learns about the danger of that condition from an Okie�
family, who have all drunk of it. {\bf Far In the Day}, by Julia�
Cunningham, is a running away to the circus story, about a mute�
beggar boy and the circus lad with leukemia who becomes his�
friend. Fun. 

M.E. Kerr's {\bf Night Kites} was one of the first teen books to�
deal with AIDS, and I recall some good coming out stuff in it. A�
few others with gay content include {\bf The Man Without a Face} �
by Isabelle Holland and {\bf Sticks and Stones} by Lynn Hall, two�
of those ``troubled teen'' boy stories, and {\bf Happy Endings�
Are All Alike}, Sandra Scoppettone's girl on girl book. But none�
of these has the unashamed, totally accepting approach of newer�
adult gay fiction like, say, Pat Califia's {\bf Doc and Fluff}. �
So if you'd like to see explicit, joyful gay juvenile fiction,�
please write it.

In the meanwhile, we'll have to settle for the old fashioned way�
of dealing with our dreams, desires, and ideal self images:�
fantasies. Here are ten favorite books that provide escape�
reading for all ages. {\bf The Amazing Voyage of Jackie Grace} �
(Matt Faulkner) has a mother yelling, ``Get into the bath!'' at�
this kid who likes to read pirate books. This Raw sized�
picturebook soon shows double page spreads of his adventures at�
sea in his bath tub. British writer Lynne Reid Banks' {\bf The�
Indian In the Cupboard} and its sequel are about a kid who has to�
deal with nasty skin heads. He does have a secret, though: a toy�
sized Indian that comes to life. (Librarians consider this book�
sexist even though it portrays the Indian as a full person, not a�
stereotype. But nine year olds, who know better than librarians,�
still love it.)

I'll call ``family fantasies'' the stories about who we wish we�
had in our family. {\bf The Mouse and His Child} by Russell Hoban�
is a modern Pinocchio fable about wind up toys trying to get real�
(and it became a Japanese animated film in 1976). Ray Bradbury's�
{\bf Something Wicked This Way Comes} is a classic in which two�
young buddies save one of their fathers from the evil Cooger \&�
Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show and carnival. (It became a 1983�
movie.) Along more realistic lines are {\bf The Planet of Junior�
Brown}, Virginia Hamilton's story of a group of homeless black�
kids in New York City who are taken care of by a teen, and�
Laurence Yep's {\bf Child of the Owl}, about a foul mouthed girl�
in San Francisco's Chinatown and her gambler father. {\bf Dear�
Mr. Henshaw}, by Beverly Cleary, is about a boy who writes�
letters to his favorite author, and comes to grips with the not�
unusual case of an absent dad.  

Then there's fiction that requires imagining yourself as either�
the boy or the girl in a fantasy novel. Lloyd Alexander's Prydain�
series ({\bf The Book of Three} is the first) has a young hero�
who starts as a lowly pig keeper, and a young heroine braver than�
he is. Youthful sword and sorcery is also found in {\bf The�
Beginning} {\bf Place}, Ursula K. LeGuin's great teen novel that�
even has a mild (hetero) sex scene. Margaret Mahy is a New�
Zealand writer writer whose romantic {\bf The Changeover} �
involves a teenage girl who goes through some changes with a�
warlock in her highschool class.

Last, but far from least, is every book from the wicked pen of�
Daniel Manus Pinkwater, the Kurt Vonnegut of the wide lined�
notebook paper set, and the fat child's own William Gibson. His�
cult classics include {\bf I Was a Second Grade Werewolf} and�
{\bf The Big Orange Splot} for antisocial younger readers, {\bf�
Lizard Music} or {\bf Alan Mendelsohn, The Boy From Mars} for�
more mature fans. But his magnum opus has to be {\bf The Snarkout�
Boys and the Avocado of Death}, about sneaking out of suburbia to�
meet a punk girl named Rat for all night movie watching in an�
inner city filled with weirdos. 

And if that doesn't sound like fun to you, then just forget it -- �
you're probably too old to get the whole thing, anyway.

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