In the Night Kitchen is a controversial book about a young boy named Mickey who is sleeping in his bed. All of a sudden he is disturbed by a noise coming from downstairs. He begins to float out of his bed, and his clothes, and drifts into a surreal world called the night kitchen. He then falls into a pot of cake batter. Three bakers continue to mix the batter and are unaware of the naked boy inside. As they are about to bake him, Mickey pops out and says that he is not the milk for the batter. Mickey, now covered in dough, makes an airplane and uses it to fly to the top of a giant milk bottle. He dives into the milk to recover some for the bakers. He sends the milk down to them and they are delighted to finish their cake. Mickey slides down the bottle and ends up back in his bed, with only the memory of this crazy dream.
This book is considered controversial because Mickey is naked for most of it. Though I agree that the nudity may not fully be necessary in the story, I do not see the major controversy in it. Sure, kids may point and giggle and the body parts of Mickey, but I think they are young enough to get past that and still be able to pay attention of the plot of the story. In class we watched the book being read to a young boy. He took notice that Mickey has no clothes on, but did not dwell on it and continued to listen to the story.
If parents have a problem with this book because in my classroom then I guess I would consider removing it, but I do not see why this book would not be included in a library. I think it is a cute story and do not find the nudity to be that distracting. I can see how people may find it controversial however that is why I would use discretion. I would use this book K-second graders. It is a fun story that children will laugh out loud at.
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