Toni Morrison's Challenge

Toni Morrison Photo by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders Toni discusses the language in her books. (:33)Need Real Player? Toni on writing for children. (:47)

Who would turn down an idea by Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison? After all, her books are usually just as popular with the critics as they are with readers.

But when Morrison laid her latest plans on the table, quite a few publishers balked. Inspired by the stories that her son, Slade, imagined as a child, she recently pointed her pen to children's literature, first publishing The Big Box, then The Book of Mean People and now Who's Got Game?: The Ant or the Grasshopper?, the first in a series based on Aesop's fables' with a twist.

Morrison found that even for a writer of her stature, stories that challenge the conventions of the genre are a hard sell. One skeptic told her, "We don't publish books in which the child at the end is not reconciled with the adult point of view."

Once she found a publisher (Hyperion) Morrison came up against some vigilant and powerful critics' parents. "I am very disappointed in [The Book of Mean People]. It is not appropriate for children of any ages," says a concerned mother and book reviewer on Amazon.com. "This book portrays teachers, mothers, friends, siblings and grandparents as mean people because they have expectations of the child."

As for whether the stories are a hit with their target audience—kids—the jury is still out. Morrison says that the reaction has been wonderful. And a substantial group of eager kids turned out for a recent book-signing event in Arlington, VA. But Dara LaPorte, the children's book manager at the Washington, DC-based bookstore Politics and Prose, says that Morrison's first two books have not proved accessible to children. And when LaPorte looked for Morrison's most recent offering in her store, it was tellingly located in the adult reading section.

How does Morrison, who currently teaches humanities courses at Princeton University, respond? By writing more books; five more of the Aesop-inspired tales are soon on the way. A firm believer that kids react to different literary stimuli than adults, she asks that parents realize the power of their children's choices.

The Big Box, which is for ages 8 and up, makes a pretty strong statement about parents going too far in protecting their children.

Yes, [the book is] a little threatening [to parents]. What [the parents] do [in the book] is lock their kids up and give them everything they wanted. The kids try to be good—try to do everything—but at same time they don't have their own lives and their own experiences. So that's what's problematic.

Do you believe that many real-life parents are doing this with their children today?

Well, you know, I'm sort of in an environment in which I see the consequences of it. Teaching at Princeton and even where I was at Albany and Yale, I see the consequences of children when they are 17 and 18 years old who, by the time they get to university, their only job is to win; their job is to not fail. You keep wondering and you want to scratch them a little bit to see what's really underneath that enormous burden and commitment. And sometimes that pressure is too great for them because it's not about learning. And when you learn, you have to experiment and you have to sometimes make mistakes, but they aren't allowed to make mistakes. They're trained to do it right the first time.

Let's talk about some critiques from parents about your children's books. A lot of parents seem to especially dislike your second one, The Book of Mean People. Is that surprising?

No! The kids love it. The kids love it. A friend of mine told me today that she gave this book to her niece and at the end of the book, her niece started to laugh and her mom asked, "What are you laughing at?" And her niece replied, "He got away, he got away." And it's true. [In] the [book's final] picture he is just free. The parents, of course, don't like to be criticized. I didn't either. Eventually you have to laugh because it's true; no parent wants to be criticized. But what they miss is that these mean people are not really mean. They are simply speaking a language that [the child is] trying to learn. What does it mean to waste time? What does it mean to sit up and sit down? This is the time when children are learning syntax and double entendre and what you really mean. That's the point of the "meanness." [The child is] not around villains. He's trying to wade his way through what for a six or seven year-old is a very complicated world. And he's unrepentant. (laughs)

Why do some children understand that message while it goes over their parents' heads?

Well, a child thought it up in the first place and I just recorded it. My son—that's him. That's what he was telling me and his brother and his grandmother. And I would just write it down because I thought it was funny. So, it's really a child talking—child language to other children. I never would have developed that kind of inquiry. Kids understand it because they're there.

How did your son, Slade, feel when you came to him and said you wanted to do these kids books based on his childhood inquiries?

Well—the first two books, he was embarrassed. He's in his thirties now! (laughs) I told him I was doing these books and he went, "eh." I said, "What if I put 'with Slade Morrision' and share the royalties?" He said, "OK." (laughs) When we started the Aesop's, he got really into it. It was he who talked about fairy stories that he hated that were scary or frustrating. We talked about all the Hansel and Gretel things. Who were these parents sending these kids out into the woods all alone? [He said] he didn't like stories that had all those morals at the end—they were like lessons to be learned. And even though they may have been correct, they were like doors slammed in your face. And he mentioned [Aesop's] "Ant and the Grasshopper" and that he didn't understand why people always jumped on the grasshopper—why was he so horrible because he was a musician and had been playing music all summer?

The ending of your The Ant or the Grasshopper is very open-ended, is that on purpose?

Yes, deliberately so. As a matter of fact I said to my son, "Yeah, it's true the artist is important and maybe he's the hero of the story." But he said, "No, it's not about heroes and villains—it's not about which one is right." There is a good reason to applaud foresight—but there's also something to say for the artist who only lives in the moment. The question is "who's got game," but [we] let the reader make up his or her mind.

I have to ask the writer, in your opinion, "Who's got game?"

Well, at one point in my life I would have said that grasshopper. (laughs) I guess that is the riskier thing if "game" means courage. But there's something to be said about making your life comfortable and conventional. The problem, of course, is that there shouldn't be any conflict between those two. They are friends, after all.

What is your advice to parents about how closely to supervise what their children read?

I would hate to have an obligation to tell parents anything. (laughs) Every mistake any parent ever made, I have made with my children. But I'd say to trust. Trust them a little bit more than you do. Don't trust the world because it's not trustworthy, but trust the children to figure it out. If you give them the opportunity to figure it out and applaud them—not because they are beautiful or because they ate their food—but when they figure something out on their own. That's what I like.

Images from The Big Box, illustrated by Giselle Potter

Rob Capriccioso is a former staff writer for Connect for Kids.