Join the conversation and you'll be entered to win!
(Note: contest ended 12/5/14 but we still invite you to comment!)
It's a challenge to be a children's book publisher and want to put out something genuinely haunting in today's climate. We all know young children have to be protected from experiencing anything too real. So we filmed Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly with Neil Gaiman at his new house in Woodstock to talk about comics and children and exposing them to fear and dark material in books.
Gaiman says, "I think if you are protected from dark things then you have no protection of, knowledge of, or understanding of dark things when they show up. I think it is really important to show dark things to kids—and in the showing, to also show that dark things can be beaten, that you have power. Tell them you can fight back. Tell them you can win. Because you can, but you have to know that."
 Hansel & Gretel Collector's Edition | "Do you agree with Neil Gaiman about scaring children? Any advice on the topic and/or other book recommendations for kids ages 7-12?" Enter a comment below and you'll be entered to win the Hansel & Gretel Collector's Edition. The TOON team to select winner on December 5th! |
Produced in a limited quantity of 500 signed and numbered copies, this very special edition presents a deluxe book together with an Italian silk-screened artist print, all in a masterfully produced box. The book is signed and numbered by both the artist, Lorenzo Mattotti, and the author, Neil Gaiman. The frameable artist print is also separately signed and numbered by the artist. Buy Here, Exclusively from TOON Books>>
Congratulations to Helena Juhasz who won the contest for the Collector's Edition!
"This is a wonderful interview. I love that Neil Gaiman likens darkness in children's literature as an "inoculation" - in a manageable form. What scared me most as a young child first learning the Hansel & Gretel story, was the idea that a family had so little to survive that they would leave the youngest behind to fend for themselves. THAT, for me, was the horror of Hansel & Gretel. The possibility of not being cared for. Being disposed of. Perhaps such darkness can nurture an understanding for what is right in this world. How do we treat each other. How do we like to be treated? And a certain amount of gratitude for what should be: safe, nurturing families."
Congratulations to Helena Juhasz who won the contest for the Collector's Edition!
"This is a wonderful interview. I love that Neil Gaiman likens darkness in children's literature as an "inoculation" - in a manageable form. What scared me most as a young child first learning the Hansel & Gretel story, was the idea that a family had so little to survive that they would leave the youngest behind to fend for themselves. THAT, for me, was the horror of Hansel & Gretel. The possibility of not being cared for. Being disposed of. Perhaps such darkness can nurture an understanding for what is right in this world. How do we treat each other. How do we like to be treated? And a certain amount of gratitude for what should be: safe, nurturing families."
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