Originally posted May 8, 2012, at Water-Wings. Republished with permission of the author.
Have you ever wondered why children like scary stories so much? Why they terrorize themselves with monsters under the bed and in the closet?
I am wondering about this (not for the first time) because Maurice Sendak, author of “Where the Wild Things Are,” passed away recently. “Wild Things,” was a beloved bedtime story at my house. Also beloved was Margaret Wise Brown’s “Runaway Bunny,” Beatrix Potter’s “Peter Rabbit,” and “The Boxcar Children” series. All featured brave characters venturing out on their own. We moved on to “Charlotte’s Web,” “Winnie the Pooh,” and “Pippi Longstocking” with more tales of bravery and challenge. I didn’t read the grim Grimm brothers to the girls — I thought they were far too scary for bedtime.
As the girls got older we read pretty much everything that Roald Dahl (“James and the Giant Peach,” “Matilda,” “The Witches”) and Lynn Banks Reid (“The Indian in the Cupboard” series) wrote. The perennial favorite was “The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler,” a story about a brother and sister who run away to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
The children in these stories face all kinds of scary situations — hunger, violence, loss of parents, witches, giants — and they all prevail (actually not that different from the scary Brothers Grimm.) At some very elemental level children seem to know that it is good to face scary things vicariously before they have to face them in reality.
Is that why they like to be scared so much? I wonder if this might be an organic part of their faith formation: a way of learning that the world is kind of a scary place; a way of learning that they have an advocate within. Through literature they get to sample the scary things of many generations, because the scary creatures or circumstances in the books usually reflect the historical context of each author’s childhood.
Some generations are defined by war, others by exploration and expansion. Often the fearful thing is defined by something that is missing: a parent, money or friends. I can’t help but wonder if a lack of familiarity with the church and a supernatural God contributes to the current magic and vampire trends in children’s literature.
Whatever the trend, there is fodder for faith talk running through it. Read to and with your kids. Talk with them about what the characters choose to do, and why. Share your own stories of faith and fear. Your children will be blessed.
I am grateful for all the authors who have enriched the lives of children, whose descriptions of monsters, giants and wild things have prepared them for life. David Hansen of Brenham, Texas, and an ELCA pastor posted this lovely epitaph for Maurice Sendak: “’And Max, the king of all wild things, was lonely and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all.’ And now, Maurice Sendak is where someone loves him best of all.”
Thanks be to God, who helps us face our fears.
Find a link to Julie Huke Klock’s blog Water-Wings at Lutheran Blogs.
You might also want to read:
Building Bible literacy in children
Sharing God’s love with children
Children of the Bible
There's one important difference between these stories and our lives: we don't prevail. That's why we hunger for these stories, because we want to buy into the 'yes we can'. The less we can, the more we want that story, and it destroys us when the truth of our failure comes to us.
However, the Good News is that Christ prevails, even over death, and allows us to do so as well. Our failures are no longer the final Word for us, but rather new life, even in the seeming face of defeat. That prepares us for failure, as we know that we can fail, and we will still have victory.