Although we were big Goosebumps fans in our elementary school years, we have to admit that we haven’t been up on R.L. Stine’s authorial activities since the early ’90s. So we were surprised, last week, when he tweeted, “I’m happy to say I’ve finished my horror novel for adults. It will be published next July.” His announcement got us thinking about how many famous children’s authors — both classic and current — have also written books for adults, with varying degrees of publicity and success. After the jump, we take a look at the more mature work of some of our favorite authors from childhood.
In an interview with Donald Sturrock, Roald Dahl once said, “I go down to my little hut, where it’s tight and dark and warm, and within minutes I can go back to being six or seven or eight again.” And that is exactly why we love Dahl — for his ability to get childhood exactly right. It’s a scary world out there, and tall people with bad facial hair and even worse attitudes tend to run the show, which makes life especially frightening to those of us who are less colossal or hirsute. In honor of the English novelist’s recent birthday, we present a group of memorable villains from his children’s stories. We suggest that you take one of the books below and hole away for a few hours, remembering what it’s like to be a kid. For more information about the English author, visit his official website, which is incredibly fun to navigate. Why not send a “glorumptious greeting e-card” to a friend?
If you’re feeling nostalgic for childhood stories, then Jayme McGowan, the creative spirit behind Roadside Projects, is the artist for you! Drawing inspiration from fables, novels and fairy tales, the Sacramento-stationed illustrator creates gorgeous, kaleidoscopic-hued 3D illustrations. For her Paper Dahls series, McGowan tears the magical worlds of Roald Dahl off the page, depicting scenes from Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and more. She has also taken on Where The Wild Things Are, dabbled in fairy tales with Little Red Riding Hood, and produced odes to Disney’s Snow White and Alice In Wonderland. Relive your adored childhood book memories after the cut.
Few headlines will draw our attention faster than “Pin-ups based on Haruki Murakami books.” Little did we know that Super Punch’s post would lead us to something even more wonderful — Portland, OR gallery Benjamin Benjamin’s Adaptation: A Show of Authors. The exhibition pairs artists with writers to create work inspired by everyone from Edgar Allen Poe and Willa Cather to Kurt Vonnegut and Roald Dahl. Click through for a glimpse at several pieces from the show, including three Murakami pin-ups by Johnny Acurso, and if you’re in the Portland area, you can find details about seeing the art in person here.
We like to think of our favorite writers as people we would get along with. So much of what attracts us to literature and philosophy is its author’s stated or implied worldview that it’s disturbing to find out that the writers we love have lived morally questionable — or even reprehensible — lives. Laura Miller examined this disappointment in a piece for Salon earlier this week, ultimately concluding that, “needing to believe that your favorite author lived in an exemplary way, embodying all the virtues of his best work, is an adolescent desire, passionate but ultimately unfair. Learning the truth is disillusioning at first, but enlightening in the end.”
In the spirit of hating the author but loving the work, we’ve rounded up a collection of great books by poets, novelist, and philosophers with unsettling biographies, featuring both writers Miller mentions and some of our own favorite scoundrels. Spoiler alert: the modernists were a pretty colorful bunch.
According to the Telegraph UK, Roald Dahl publisher Puffin has struck a deal with UK supermarket chain Asda to place excerpts from Dahl classicson the backs of ten million boxes of cereal sold in their stores. Over the next few weeks, Asda will replace the games and advertisements on the backs of all of their own store-brand cereals with 200-odd word excerpts and illustrations from Dahl classics The Witches; The Twits, The BFG; Danny, the Champion of the World and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Francesca Dow, the managing editor of Penguin’s children’s books, including the Puffin imprint, explains, ”The great thing about a cereal box, is that it potentially is reaching millions of households that just don’t read any literature outside of school…There could be an enormous number of children discovering Roald Dahl for the first time, bleary eyed over the breakfast table.” Sounds like heaven to us. What do you think? Would you (or your kids) like the BFG with your morning Cheerios?
We all know adults can be evil, but in the modern era we are still under the impression that children are born good. Which is why it scares the bejesus out of us to imagine a reality where wicked children reign. The youth below range from the ambiguously bad (e.g., Miles in Turn of the Screw) to the Antichrist (e.g., Damien in The Omen), with eight other stories in between. Is there any bad seed we missed, dear readers? Let us know in the comments section below.
Everyone had a favorite book as a kid – you know, that tattered old thing you carried from room to room and made you parents read out loud to you over and over again, the one that you quoted until you were, um, a little too old to be doing so. We know our lives were shaped in part by the literature we loved as children, so inspired by this recent list of books every child should read, we got to thinking about what your favorite kids book back then might say about you now that you’re all grown up. Click through for our predictions, and do your best to take it with the grain of salt we intend – don’t worry, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory lovers, we’re not really accusing you of advocating slavery. Be sure to add to the fun and make up your own in the comments!
