In the Night Kitchen

In the Night Kitchen, written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak, is not a book that is controversial in its' message like the other books I have discussed, but rather, it is the illustrations that hold concern with parents and teachers. In the story a boy is transported into the night kitchen in the company of some cake making bakers. The story while, already a little strange at this point, gets even weirder as the boy is depicted completely nude, displaying a pair of testicles and a penis, as he swims in cake batter and milk. This is one of the only controversial books that I must say is a bit too much. I did a bit of further research on this book, and I found a couple of google sources that explained Sendak depicted him nude, so that the cake batter would not get on the boy's pajamas. I really do not buy this explanation, there are so many perspective and graphic tactics that Sendak could have done to avoid putting full on frontal child nudity into a children's picture book. To be perfectly frank, the book was just plain weird, and a little pointless.