Description:
What happens when you feel angry and hurt by your family's stinging words that you tear right out the front door? In many classic children's stories, the protagonist just keeps on running--setting off on a thrilling, dangerous adventure that turns out to be a cautionary tale about the risks of the great big world and a reinforcement that the only safe place to be is back home with family. In William Steig's terrific Spinky Sulks, the young fireplug-shaped, spiky-haired hero does not run away and learn his lesson. Instead, he hits the grass outside his home and collapses into the world's longest, most impermeable funk. Completely mute and physically unresponsive--his arm hangs "like a noodle" when his mother reaches for it--Spinky practically turns into an inanimate object. As the days go by, his older siblings "kept finding him in weird places" where they'd "try to pry a word out of him, or they'd just pass him by." In time, Spinky becomes so adept at his catatonia as to be able to completely ignore a parade marching by in the street. Spinky Sulks is a highly resonant, realistic picture of childhood feelings. And yes, Spinky does come inside and talk to everyone in the end--in his own time and in his own way, because he's ready. --Jean Lenihan
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