Plot Summary:
A little boy goes to sleep at night and falls, naked into the night kitchen. He meets three chefs that put him into the batter thinking he is milk, they are going to make a Mickey cake. He jumps out exclaiming that he is not milk! He molds the batter into an airplane which he uses to fly up to the giant jug of actual milk and dives in. All the batter falls off and the airplane disintegrates in the milk. Naked again, he swims around in the milk for a while before pouring it into the chefs' recipe, about which they are delighted. He crows and slides down the jug of milk. He then wakes up in his bed, all clean and dry and dressed.
Personal Reaction:
As far as reading goes, this book is okay and not wonderful. I am sure that parents would freak out if their little girls brought this book home from school, and I am also sure that all of the students would be preoccupied with the nude pictures of a little boy. Now, let’s add in the fact that there are three giant men stirring a naked little boy around in a bowl and just not go there. I bought this book and am giving it to my best friend who has little boys if she will take it. I would not order it for my library, and I think I would have to fight a battle with myself as far as wanting to take it off of the shelf to avoid conflict if I got a job at a library that already had a copy in its holdings. On the bright side, I don’t think I will have to cross that bridge because I do not believe the literary value of this book overrides the questionable content; therefore, the chances of that happening are not very high. The illustrations are very good aside from all that. They tell parts of the story that the text only implies. For example, the text never mentions that he makes an airplane out of the dough.
Sendak, M., & Blair, D. (1970). In the night kitchen. New York: Harper & Row.
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