Recently, Cracked.com posted an article called 10 Great Books for (Traumatizing) Children.  It was pretty funny, so I guess it met its goal, but I was surprised to see a book by Maurice Sendak in place #7.  I mean, this list has books about the bombing of Hiroshima, abuse, racism, fascism, and drugs.  And they think that a fantasy book by Sendak is traumatizing?

Needless to say, I immediately went to the library and checked out Outside Over There by Maurice Sendak.  And of course I loved it.  I mean come on, it won a Caldecott Honor Award. 

In this book, a little girl named Ida babysits her infant sister while her parents are busy.  While she’s not paying attention, goblins steal the baby away, and she has to get the baby back.  (As the cracked article says, this was apparently the book that inspired the movie Labyrinth). 

Now, I do think that this book is a little bit disturbing, but not for the reasons the cracked article mentions. 

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