So, the piece on kids' movies is up at The Atlantic. If you're interested in Where the Wild Things Are, or stories about things (well, a story, about a thing) that scared me to death when I'm a kid, I hope you'll consider checking it out. Piece is mildly spoilery, if you've never read the books on which Wild Things, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, or Fantastic Mr. Fox are based on. In which case, get on that stat! Those books are all great, and it was a joy to get to reread them this weekend for the piece.
My first gig as a professional writer happened around the time the childhood story in the lede takes place. I started writing kids' book reviews for the childrens' page of our local newspaper in Vermont. I was paid in $5 gift certificates to the Vermont Book Shop and occasionally in t-shirts designed by the pages' editors. It gave me a reason to read as much and as obsessively as I wanted, and gave me an outlet to think critically about the books I read. I've never stopped believing that kids deserve great books (and art of other kinds) because they can appreciate them--and because they can handle the complications that often come with quality.