Illustration by James Steinbery

Rory Schrobilgen isn’t sure if being a published writer is his life’s ambition. But for now, the 13-year-old is doing just that—posting short stories and novels on Figment.com, where his writings reach scads of readers far beyond his family and friends in Oak Park, IL.

Schrobilgen joined the teen writing community in December 2010 after hearing about it from a friend, and counts on its feedback to improve his pieces, which include Inquiry, a dystopian novel-in-progress about two teens living in an abandoned city with no memory of how they got there.

“Just the feeling that someone in the world can read your writing and enjoy it, that’s cool,” says Schrobilgen, who enters ninth grade at Oak Park and River Forest High School this fall. “It’s a taste of being a published author even if I don’t grow up to be one.”

Schrobilgen isn’t the only budding fiction writer who’s hooked on Figment. Since Jacob Lewis (a former managing editor of the New Yorker and of Portfolio, a Condé Nast magazine that folded in April 2009) and Dana Goodyear (a current staff writer for the New Yorker) launched Figment on December 5, 2010, roughly 250,000 registered users have flocked to the free writing platform. (The site attracted 4,000 teens on its first day.) Kids ages 13 and older now routinely add about 1,000 stories each day to the site and critique their peers’ works.

Figment gained many of its users in February, when it purchased HarperCollins’s Inkpop, a rival teen-writing site, and welcomed its 95,000 members aboard. But a good chunk of the site’s growth has also come from librarians and teachers who see the space as a perfect way to breathe new life into dreary writing assignments or staid writing groups, which often don’t cut it with today’s social media- and digital content-savvy kids.

Figment’s creators teamed up with libraries and schools early on. “Given that we were becoming a place where teens and young adults were excited to spend time reading and writing, it seemed natural to partner with librarians and other educators to capitalize on that excitement and direct some of it toward educational settings—to really take advantage of Figment as a potential teaching tool,” says Katie Robbins, Figment’s former vice president of partnerships and director of educational programming.

The site produces a bimonthly educator newsletter that reaches more than 4,000 subscribers and includes tips on how to work Figment into their programs. For example, a recent lesson on Printz Award–winner Meg Rosoff’s new novel, There Is No Dog (Putnam, 2012), encourages students to “think sideways” by reinterpreting a favorite story.

Maggie Stiefvater

Figment understands its young audience well. It’s partnered with HuffPost Teen, where a Figment piece appears each week, and, Lewis says, Figment ran its famous fiction contest in Seventeen magazine last year. The competition attracted about 5,000 entries and more than 37,000 votes. The winner, Alexandra K., earned a $5,000 cash prize, had her story published on Seventeen’s website, and received a phone call from one of the judges, Maggie Stiefvater, the author of The Scorpio Races (Scholastic, 2011), a Printz Honor book.

Even Figment’s homepage is inviting, covered in doodles that teens may have scribbled on their old-school notebooks at home. Figment has also birthed a small graphic-design industry, where would-be art directors eagerly create covers for other community members for free or barter. Plus, young J. K. Rowlings don’t sacrifice their copyrights by sharing—anything they post, they own. However, the sharing is what drives them—and educators—there in the first place, says Lewis. “One of the wondrous qualities of the site is people feel free and liberated enough to share their work, because there’s a feel of legitimacy in publishing something and sharing it with tens of thousands of people,” he says. “That can be a powerful force.”

Teens also respond favorably to having their writing critiqued—granted, the community is generally gentle and supportive in its approach—and the site acts as a virtual writing mentor to young hopefuls. Just ask Jordan Allen. “There’s a poem I wrote, which [members] asked me to expand on as a story,” says the 18-year-old senior at Roseville High School in Michigan, who started using Figment primarily for her poetry. “But I was horrible at it. They kept pushing me to write more, and write more in-depth, and it was definitely helpful in getting me to the final product.”

In addition to its main site, Figment also offers Figment Groups, a private space where students can share their works—but with a preselected group of users. Only educators can sign up and create a Figment Group—but teens who join are still members of the entire Figment site and can decide if and when to share their work with the wider community.

To cultivate her kids’ writing chops, Alexis Skidmore, a library assistant at Palomino Library, a branch of Arizona’s Scottsdale Public Library, launched a Figment Group for her teens, where she posts writing prompts and encourages them to write book reviews and enter contests the site runs periodically. “They gravitate to the flash fiction ones because they’re fast and they have big-name authors involved that the students recognize,” says Skidmore of the brief stories that usually run 1,000 words or less.

Of her group’s 22 members, seven still use the site, and Skidmore finds they love the immediate response it offers, not to mention the fun they have earning virtual badges (pictured) such as Bookworm, Critic, and Inkslinger for publishing stories, and adding the badges to their online profiles.

Skidmore’s library is housed on the campus of Desert Mountain High School (which Newsweek recently named one of the best schools in the country), giving her more access to local teens, since the space also doubles as their school library. She anticipates that more students will join her group during the coming school year, but they just haven’t turned in their permission slips yet. “They’re wonderful, but paperwork is not their strong suit,” she says, laughing.

Figment’s Robbins says the group feature not only allows students to create first drafts before they’re ready to share with the community at large, but also offers library staffers like Skidmore a way to run more tailored contests, give helpful feedback, or just interact with their students and patrons privately. “Ultimately the groups really are a kind of blank canvas that can be used in a really wide variety of ways and for different kinds of projects,” says Robbins. These include schools using groups to workshop pieces collectively, classes sharing pieces of historical fiction based on historical characters, and a New York youth-mentoring organization, Girls Write Now, which uses the groups to turn their writing into digital pieces using video and images.

Many librarians and teachers come to the site through their students, but also through cross marketing with groups including Edutopia, the New York Times Learning Network, the American Association of School Librarians, and the Young Adult Library Services Association, which recently teamed with Figment to create a private group to talk about the finalists for the 2012 Teens’ Top Ten.

Kim Bewick, a youth librarian at Strathcona County Library in Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada, turned to Figment to give teens a way to talk about the books they’re reading, post online book reviews, and take part in her library’s Teen Summer Reading Game, where kids win prizes for reading and reviewing books.

While just 15 teens had signed up for the Figment portion of the games by the end of the first week, Bewick expects more members as weeks progress, and students are already posting reviews and bantering in the forum areas. She hopes many will stay on to connect through the site’s online forums. Bewick particularly likes that she, or any teacher or librarian that starts Figment Groups, can monitor them, that they’re available 24/7 to students, and that strangers can’t intrude. “We are extremely excited about having a space dedicated to books and writing for our teens that is available to them on their terms and their time,” says Bewick, by email. “The library doesn’t have the capacity to be open 24/7 at this point, but with online forums the teens can engage at any time. And we’re really excited about that.”

The level of control that Figment Groups provide lets librarians and other educators offer kids a certain degree of handholding as they get started—even removing comments or posts that aren’t in keeping with the spirit of the group. Dawn Hall, a part-time teen and tween librarian at Colebrook Public Library in New Hampshire, just launched a Figment Group for her teen reading group. She’d considered building a wiki space, but loved Figment’s content—and the discretion it gave her. “I wanted them to be their own group where there wouldn’t be kids signed up if they weren’t in the program,” she says. “Also, I have control of blocking them from posting anything inappropriate.”

Certainly not all teens are destined for literary stardom or want to craft stories for strangers to read, but educators eager to engage today’s digital natives are finding Figment a fun way to handle English assignments or to get them involved in a library group. Plus, for many teens, the site offers a chance to strengthen and nurture their writing skills—and gives them a taste of real-world readers.

“I prefer Figment criticism to real life,” says Schrobilgen. “There’s something [special] about the Figment community because no one is going to tell you you’re terrible. They’re going to be polite and give you tips on how to get better. There are some people who read every chapter of my novel as I write them, and that’s nice. They’re with you every step of the way.”

Thinking about using Figment in your school?

Try these tips from teachers, librarians, and the folks at Figment:

1. Teachers and librarians say that while Figment is fun, educators should still come up with an assignment that tweaks the norm. Think Harry Potter fan fiction, flash stories, short pieces influenced by an image or piece of music, or even entries for one of Figment’s occasional writing contests.

2. As with any use of online media, a lesson on privacy issues and safe surfing is key. Students should be cautioned about posting too much personal information—perhaps using only first names and not mentioning the city where they live.

3. Make a decision early that if you launch a closed group, students know when you’re comfortable with them sharing their work with the larger community, and how long you’d like them to stay within the virtual class space.

4. Finally, to ensure that all students feel read and evenly critiqued, teachers and librarians can assign teens to read one another’s work—so all teens get to experience that first comment or two.

What the Common Core Standards do not include or replace is content standards, so curriculum specialists and librarians and the teachers with whom they work are left to determine how to meld them together with their state content standards. It’s not an impossible task—what the Common Core really calls for is an end to rote learning and repetition, focusing instead on rigorous inquiry and discussion that will enable our students to think critically, listen attentively, use technology strategically, and communicate effectively. And, of course, this all starts in kindergarten.

We think audiobooks offer teachers and librarians a unique way to engage students with learning that supports these objectives. To that end, this month’s column focuses entirely on titles that support specific Common Core Standards, with content standards for various states included as examples of how they work together, from kindergarten through high school.

Elementary School

Kitten’s First Full Moon. Written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes. Narrated by Joan Allen. CD. 6 min. with hardcover book. Weston Woods. 2011. ISBN 978-0-545-37422-4. $29.95. PreS-Gr 1
The Caldecott Medal story of a kitten searching for a tantalizing bowl of milk has made a lovely transition to audio. A fanciful musical underbed follows the action as kitten tumbles, chases, and climbs to reach the elusive bowl of milk in the sky. Allen’s vocal pacing pairs nicely with looking at the illustrations. As kitten finally finds the milk waiting on the porch, quiet satisfaction and humor bring a happy end to the tale.

Common Core Standard: SL.K.2. Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.

Content Standard: Baltimore County (MD) Public Schools (Kindergarten, Language Arts)

Sequence and retell events or stories.
Comprehend information in fiction and non-fiction texts.

From Seed to Plant. Written and illustrated by Gail Gibbons. Narrated by Erin Mallon. CD. 12:34 min. with paperback book. Live Oak Media. 2012. ISBN 1-4301-1079-8. $18.95. K-Gr 2
With fitting music, well-placed sound effects, and clear narration, this nonfiction title combines information and style. The introduction includes page-turn signal instructions as well as a note about how the text and captions are spoken, allowing listeners to easily follow the location of words on each page. Mallon’s light voice and excellent pacing affords students time to study the illustrations that depict the terminology of plant life cycles. The very useful project and facts about seeds at the end provides a natural extension for primary grade science lessons.

Common Core Standard: RI.1.2. Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.

Content Standard: Madison (WI) Metropolitan School District (Grade 1, Life Science)

Communicate that new plants grow from seeds, leaves, stem cuttings, roots and bulbs, and as plants grow, they develop structures that serve their basic life cycle needs.

Pair the next two audiobooks to introduce the upcoming presidential elections, using the same Common Core and content standards for both. Note: Virginia has not adopted the Common Core State Standards, but does provide a comparison and analysis with the Common Core (www.virginia.doe.virginia.gov/testing/common_core/Index.shtml).

So You Want to Be President? Written by Judith St. George. Illustrated by David Small. Narrated by Stockard Channing. CD. 22:05 min. with hardcover book. Weston Woods. 2002. ISBN 978-1-55592-132-3. $29.95. K-Gr 4
This Caldecott Medal winner features humorous facts about U.S. presidents with a viewpoint especially interesting to children. Droll, cartoon-style illustrations extend the text and provide intriguing presidential caricatures. Difficult issues are presented in age-appropriate fashion. Channing’s reading enhances the humor and the background music includes variations of “Hail to the Chief” and other patriotic songs that lend an energetic air to the narration.

The Worst of Friends: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and the True Story of an American Feud. Written by Suzanne Tripp Jurmain. Illustrated by Larry Day. Narrated by Richard Poe. CD. 15 min. with hardcover book. Recorded Books. 2012. ISBN 978-1-4640-4049-8. $37.75. Gr 2-4
Political discord is nothing new, as Jurmain humorously reveals in this snapshot of two admired patriots. As “different as pickles and ice cream,” both physically and philosophically, Adams and Jefferson stopped speaking to each other for nearly a decade while their political parties wrangled to the point of violence. Day’s illustrations provide plenty of historical detail and Poe’s forthright narration and steady pacing hit just the right note to keep readers turning the page.

Common Core Standard:RI.3.3. Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.

Content Standard: Virginia Standards of Learning (Grade 3 History and Social Science, Civics)

3.11 The student will explain the importance of the basic principles that form the foundation of a republican form of government by

a) describing the individual rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and equality under the law;

d) describing how people can serve the community, state, and nation.

Middle School

The Great and Only Barnum: The Tremendous, Stupendous Life of Showman P. T. Barnum. Written by Candace Fleming. Narrated by Christopher Lane. 4 CDs. 3 hrs. Brilliance Audio. 2012. ISBN 978-1-4558-1136-6. $54.97. Gr 6-9
From the jaunty introductory circus music to the sensational tidbits of Barnum’s life, this engaging biography of America’s greatest purveyor of humbug gives all the detail kids (and adults, too) will want to know. Beginning with Barnum’s impoverished childhood and ending with the famous circus that still bears his name, Lane’s comfortable pacing and rich voice take listeners back to an earlier time and the 19th-century fascination with human curiosities: Tom Thumb, bearded ladies, and Chang and Eng are among Barnum’s many featured oddities. It’s not all about amusement, as Fleming includes Barnum’s darker side as well, presenting a well-rounded portrait of the celebrated showman. A bonus CD contains photographs and other illustrated material from the print edition.

Common Core Standard: RI.8.7. Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums (e.g., print or digital text, video, multimedia) to present a particular topic or idea.

Content Standard: Hawaii State Standards (Social Studies, Grade 8)

HI.2. Historical Understanding: Change, Continuity, and Causality: Understand change and/or continuity and cause and/or effect in history.

SS.8.2.1. Historical Sources: Differentiate between primary and secondary sources, understanding the potential and limitations of each.

The Mighty Miss Malone. Written by Christopher Paul Curtis. Narrated by Bahni Turpin. 7 CDs. 8 hrs. Listening Library. 2012. ISBN 978-0-3079-6824-1. $44. Gr 6-8
Twelve-year-old Deza Malone’s family is struggling with Depression-era life in Gary, Indiana, but their strength to persevere is a testament to resilience, good humor, high hopes, and courage. As her father searches for work far away from home, Deza, her mother, and her brother are determined to follow him. When they do, the trials of racism, hunger, and homelessness are palpable. Turpin’s talent embodies the voice of Deza as she journeys to find not only herself but also her most important family values.

Common Core Standard: RL.7.9. Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character and an historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history.

Content Standard: Georgia Department of Education (English Language Arts, Grade 7: ELA7R1)

c. Relate a literary work to information about its setting or historical moment.

A Wrinkle in Time. Written by Madeleine L’Engle. Narrated by Hope Davis. 5 CDs. 6 hrs. Listening Library. 2012. ISBN 978-0-3079-1659-4. $25. Gr 6-8
This 50th anniversary production of L’Engle’s Newbery-winning story introduces a new generation to Meg Murry and her younger brother, Charles Wallace, as they travel to rescue their father, a trip that truly “wrinkles time.” Engaging vocal interpretations of Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which contrast nicely with the young voices Davis employs for the children. An introduction read by the late author adds to the enchantment of this classic tale. A Common Core text exemplar for grades 6-8.

Common Core Standard: RL.6.3. Describe how a particular story’s or drama’s plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.

Content Standard: Oklahoma State Department of Education (Oklahoma C3 Standards, Language Arts, Grade 6)

2. Inferences and Interpretation

b. Make inferences or draw conclusions about characters’ qualities and actions (i.e., based on knowledge of plot, setting, characters’ motives, characters’ appearances, other characters’ responses to a character).

High School

The Book Thief. Written by Marcus Zusak. Narrated by Allan Corduner. 11 CDs. 13:56 hrs. Listening Library.ISBN 978-0-7393-3800-1. $75. Gr 9-12
Nazi Germany during World War II is the backdrop for this “small story” that explores the power of words to affect the human condition. Death is the narrator here, performed with detached perfection by Corduner, recounting the story of the young thief, Liesel, who discovers books have the ability to sustain her community amidst the horrors of war. This 2007 Michael L. Printz Honor Book is also a Common Core text exemplar for grades 9-10.

Common Core Standard: RL.9-10.2. Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

Content Standard: Massachusetts (Reading Standards for Literature 6-12)

Grades 9-10: MA.8.A. Relate a work of fiction, poetry, or drama to the seminal ideas of its time.

The Scorpio Races. Written by Maggie Stiefvater. Narrated by Steve West and Fiona Hardingham. 7 CDs. 12 hrs. Scholastic Audio. ISBN 978-0-545-35705-0. $79.99. Gr 8-12

From the author’s original music to the sweeping drama of Sean Kendrick and Puck Connolly’s quest to win the deadly annual water horse races, the dual performances of West and Hardingham drive the narrative to its satisfying conclusion. This 2012 Odyssey Honor award winner showcases how a listening experience can raise a strong narrative to an even higher level as the tension builds.

Common Core Standard: RL.9-10.5. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.

Content Standard: Illinois State Board of Education (English Language Arts)

State Goal #1: Read with understanding and fluency

C. Comprehend a broad range of reading material

1.C.4e. Analyze how authors and illustrators use text and art to express and emphasize their ideas (e.g., imagery, multiple points of view).

The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic. Written by Allan Wolf. Narrated by Michael Page, Phil Gigante, Christopher Lane, Laural Merlington, and Angela Dawe. 9 CDs. 10 hrs. Brilliance Audio. 2011. ISBN 978-1-4558-2937-8. $59.97. G. 9-12
There are many observances of the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking, but here is a distinctly unique perspective featuring voices unheard from before: the Morse code telegrapher, the mail clerks, the captain, the crow’s nest lookout, even a ship’s rat and the fateful iceberg. These and more, including the unsinkable Molly Brown, give the outstanding ensemble cast many opportunities to present a “you are there” feeling as the inevitable becomes reality. Even though listeners know the outcome, the approaching doom is still a surprise, until the last feeble Morse code transmission is sent. A tour-de-force narrative and production.

Common Core Standard: RL.9-10.3. Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

Content Standard: English Language Arts Content Standards for California Public Schools, Grades 9-10

Narrative Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Text

3.4 Determine characters’ traits by what the characters say about themselves in narration, dialogue, dramatic monologue, and soliloquy.

Literary Criticism

3.11 Evaluate the aesthetic qualities of style, including the impact of diction and figurative language on tone, mood, and theme, using the terminology of literary criticism. (Aesthetic approach)

Illustration by Sergio Ruzzier

Fourteen years ago, I waited in line at a public library circulation desk with my three-year-old niece, Sara, who was clutching a well-worn copy of In the Night Kitchen. When her turn came, she handed the book to the clerk, and anxiously held her breath as it was checked back in.

“Would you like to check it out again?” asked the clerk. Sara nodded, still holding her breath. Once the book was handed back to her, she breathed a big sigh of relief and passed it to my brother to tuck away in their library bag. As the visiting out-of-town aunt, I was both charmed and puzzled by this exchange, and that must have shown on my face.

“We go through this every month,” my brother explained. “She’s crazy about that book. She loves everything by Maurice Sendak, but this one, in particular, is her favorite.”

“You know,” I said, “If Sara loves In the Night Kitchen so much, I’d be happy to buy her a copy of her own.”

“No, she seems to like this ritual,” my brother responded. “And the people at the library seem to get a kick out of it, too.”

“The people at the library probably like having that particular book checked out,” I quipped. We were, after all, in a conservative town in northern Florida, and Mickey’s frontal nudity was legendary. I had learned in library school that some librarians had infamously painted diapers on Mickey to avoid controversy. And I’d seen that fact quoted countless times in any piece of writing dealing with Sendak’s cutting-edge genius. Those outside the profession seemed to admire his willingness to thumb his nose at puritanical children’s librarians.

And yet, here we were, in this conservative town, with a copy of In the Night Kitchen on open shelves, available to any three-year-old like Sara who had just discovered the books of Maurice Sendak. And while Sara might have monopolized the library’s sole copy of the book in 1998, there were 17 years from 1970 to 1997 when the book resided in the children’s picture-books collection, sans diapers, going to the homes of other children who had checked it out over the years without incident.

So that got me wondering: Just how often was Mickey diapered in America’s libraries? And who started it? How did others react to the practice? Was it as commonplace as the reports would have us believe?

When Sendak died on May 8, nearly every obituary from major news outlets mentioned the diaper controversy as the sole legacy of In the Night Kitchen. This take from the Washington Post was typical: “The book’s full-frontal nudity of the protagonist was considered shocking at the time, and librarians chose to draw diapers over the offending scene.” Those who engaged in this sort of censorship were variously described in the obits as “some librarians” (the Los Angeles Times), “many school librarians” (the New York Times), and “librarians across the country” (Forbes). None of the publications mentioned that In the Night Kitchen was awarded a Caldecott Honor in 1971, a strong stamp of approval from these same “prudish” American children’s librarians.

In fact, judging from reviews and honors, librarians as a group were supportive of Sendak’s work from the outset. Between 1954 and 1963, he racked up five Caldecott Honors for his superbly restrained illustrations in books such as A Very Special House (1953) by Ruth Krauss, Moon Jumpers (1959) by Janice May Udry, and Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present (1962) by Charlotte Zolotow. His ground-breaking masterpiece, Where the Wild Things Are (1963, all Harper), was controversial in its day, but went on to win the Caldecott Medal, and has since become a modern classic—in spite of misgivings expressed by experts, such as child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim, who warned readers of its potential dangers in the March 1969 issue of Ladies’ Home Journal. “The basic anxiety of the child is desertion. To be sent to bed alone is one desertion, and without food is a second desertion. The combination is the worst desertion that can threaten a child,” Bettelheim wrote, after admitting that he hadn’t actually seen the book firsthand but had only heard a plot summary. And a reviewer in the September 1964 edition of Journal of Nursery Education (the forerunner to Young Children) wrote: “We should not like to have it left about where a sensitive child might find it to pore over in the twilight.”

But librarians, for the most part, loved the book. The success of Where the Wild Things Are catapulted Sendak to international fame and fortune, and allowed him the freedom to experiment as an artist. He refused to fall into a formula; rather, he took risks and constantly reinvented himself by creating venturesome, daring picture books that refused to lie to children about psychological realities. He raised some adult eyebrows in 1970 with In the Night Kitchen, a dreamlike story in which young Mickey falls out of his clothes and revels in the sensuality of jumping into milk and dough as he’s baked into an enormous cake. In a New York Times feature that appeared just before the book was published, Saul Braun described the story as a “masturbatory fantasy” that would be “sure to offend.” But the professional reviews of the book at the time were universally laudatory, praising Sendak’s originality and artistry, and recommending it widely for school and library purchase. All of the reviews made note of the book’s frontal nudity, but none of them dwelt on it, choosing to focus instead on the story as a whole. In addition to winning a 1971 Caldecott Honor, it was an American Library Association (ALA) Notable Children’s Book and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, and was recommended for core collections by both the Children’s Catalog and Elementary School Library Collection.

So where did the diapers come in? And who were the “librarians across the country” who were painting them on Mickey? We can get clues, it turns out, from Sendak himself. He talked about the incidents loudly and frequently. In 1991, for example, he delivered a speech at the American Booksellers Convention called “Why Mickey Wears No Pants,” which the Los Angeles Times published in its entirety. There, he told the story of a 1972 press release sent by Ursula Nordstrom, his editor at Harper, “denouncing this outrageous mistreatment of In the Night Kitchen.” The release includes a reference to a letter from a Louisiana librarian that had been printed in School Library Journal “without any editorial comment,” according to Nordstrom. The two-sentence letter by Betty B. Jackson of Caldwell, LA, appeared in SLJ’s December 1971 issue:

“Maurice Sendak might faint but a staff member of Caldwell Parish Library, knowing that the patrons of the community might object to the illustrations of In the Night Kitchen, solved the problem by diapering the little boys with white tempera paint. Other libraries might wish to do the same.”

Although Nordstrom claimed there was no editorializing, the headline for the letter made SLJ ’s position clear: “Three-Cornered Censorship.” The letter was also dwarfed by a half-page reproduction of the “Cock-a-Doodle-Doo!” illustration showing Mickey in all his full-frontal glory.

We can’t be certain how many librarians took Jackson’s advice and followed suit. Sendak himself reported that several expurgated copies made their way to him over the years, “smuggled” to him by “embarrassed librarians.” But to date, there has been only one other documented case of diapering reported to ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom: in 1977 there were 40 copies of the book distributed to the kindergarten classes in Springfield, MO, but only after the director of curriculum development had hired an artist to draw shorts on Mickey. School officials swore that it wasn’t really censorship—it was merely the only way the book could be used in their public schools.

The extent to which librarians put diapers on Mickey has been most likely greatly exaggerated over the years. But there was another type of response from librarians, even more dramatic, that has gone under-reported. When Nordstrom sent out the 1972 press release decrying the “mutilation” of In the Night Kitchen, she invited librarians to sign a statement saying, “We, as writers, illustrators, publishers, critics, and librarians, deeply concerned with preserving First Amendment freedoms for everyone involved in the processes of communicating ideas, vigorously protest this exercise of censorship.” In response, she received 425 signatures supporting the statement—an excellent return, considering she had originally sent the press release to 380 individuals.

And there was more. At ALA’s 1972 midwinter conference, the Children’s Book Council formally brought the SLJ letter to the attention of the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee as part of its official business meeting. The committee immediately ruled that the practice was a clear violation of the Library Bill of Rights and ordered the preparation of a clarifying statement “reaffirming the principle that defacement and expurgation of library materials already selected and acquired by libraries clearly denies library patrons their right of access to the materials and infringes equally on the rights of authors, artists, and publishers.” The case helped librarians uphold the idea that this sort of cover-up was just as censorious as the outright removal of the book from library collections.

And that’s why, thanks to librarians, kids like Sara can find In the Night Kitchen on our children’s shelves—accessible and diaper free.

Remembering Maurice Sendak
By Judith Viorst

Yours, the dark side of the moon,

The scary places,

The thoughts we were taught not to think,

The angry faces.

The unallowed feelings we whispered

You rowdily screamed.

Leaving us comforted.

Leaving us redeemed.

Kathleen T. Horning (horning@education.wisc.edu) is director of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her last feature for SLJ , “The Buddy System” (October 2011), was an interview with Norton Juster and Jules Feiffer, the creators of The Phantom Tollbooth .

Sergio Ruzzier, author and illustrator was a 2011 Sendak Fellow; he had the opportunity to work on any project for four weeks at Maurice Sendak’s Connecticut studio. By utter coincidence, he worked on his illustration for SLJ while staying at Sendak’s home, drawing at his desk with his German shepherd nearby.