I recently finished reading Goop Soup, the third installment of David Lubar’s Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie saga (and sequel to Dead Guy Spy and My Rotten Life), a sequence of humorous novels categorized as “middle grade fiction” by the publisher, Tor Books. The series chronicles the life and times of Nate Abercrombie, a fifth-grader who comes in contact with an experimental substance that turns him into a zombie. With the help of his friends Mookie and Abigail, Nate tries to find a cure for his predicament while having to deal with nosey parents, bullies at school, and the ever-present fear of losing rotting appendages during gym class! And as if his life wasn’t already exciting enough, Nate is contacted by representatives of BUM (the Bureau of Useful Misadventures), a secret agency whose nebulous mission is to “make the world a better place,” and begins training as a spy!
One of the trademarks of this series thus far has been the frequency of amusing, gross references – smelly burps, projectile vomit, hellacious farts, etc. – that I’m sure entertain young readers to no end. In fact, the storyline of Goop Soup revolves around a weird green slime that is suddenly coming out of area showers and faucets, being found in the cafeteria soup at school, etc. The goop turns out to be “mushroom poop,” or the waste product of a monstrous fungal life form created by an evil cabal named RABID (Raise Anarchy by Inciting Disorder).
But while I was looking for more comparable reads (Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants, Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid, etc.) on the Internet, I stumbled across an opinion piece on a “pro-family” site. It was written by Orlean Koehle, State President of Eagle Forum of California, and entitled “Gross, Grosser, and Grossest – How Far Have We Sunk in Children’s Literature?” Here an excerpt:
“Whatever happened to beautiful classical literature in our public schools, where students read about the lives of real heroes, from whom they can learn and emulate great character traits? It appears now that the adjectives of choice for literature in the classroom are either gross or funny, and the grosser – the funnier – the better. Teachers or students don’t seem to have any expectations that moral teachings or redeeming values will be learned – just that students will be entertained.
A few years ago, I was substitute teaching in the first grade for a school in Santa Rosa, CA. I found in the classroom library a shocking illustrated book for their silent reading time. It was entitled All About Farts and showed various animals and the ‘farts’ that they produce and ended with a page about human farts showing a little boy and a grown man, naked in a hot tub together with bubbles from their bottoms coming up to the surface. I thought at the time, this is gross. Who in their right mind would want a child to read such a book? What redeeming value could this possibly have? What can a child learn from such a book?
Last week I found a book that was even grosser. I was teaching the fourth grade in a school in Healdsburg, CA. The teacher’s lesson plan asked for me to read to the students after lunch. The book she left for me on the desk was called The Day My Butt Went Psycho! by supposedly a best-selling Australian author, Andy Griffiths. The front cover goes on to say, ‘The epic tale of one brave boy and his crazy, runaway butt’…
During the morning recess I previewed the book and decided it is exactly what the author says it is on the back cover. He gives it a G rating for ‘gross – contains immature material not suited for adults.’ In the forward, he states that it is only suited for readers 18 and younger. Adults might be offended by it. So, does that mean that only children’s minds are to be corrupted by gross things, and adults are to not be concerned about it?”
I understand that Koehle’s specific issue here is with these kinds of books being read in the classroom but after reading her piece, I couldn’t help but think that she had missed the point. Yes, children should definitely read books that educate them – but one of the basic definitions of the term “to educate” is "to develop the abilities of a person." And in a word replete with video games, the Internet, hundreds of television channels, etc. where more and more people aren’t reading – 50 percent of American adults are unable to read an eighth grade level book! – I’m all for using books like Goop Soup to show children that reading doesn’t have to always be educational and/or moralizing – ie: boring. Reading can be simply for entertainment value, it can be just for fun – and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
As a father of two young children who will be in school in a few years, I deeply considered Koehle’s point of view. Would I be offended if my kids’ teacher read excerpts from books like The Day My Butt Went Psycho! or Goop Soup? The answer is a resounding “No.” But then again, I review genre fiction for a living and my kids have already exposed to an endless succession of books about all kinds of folklore and mythology and fantastical characters like dragons and werewolves and, yes, zombies – and let me tell you, some classic fairy tales are just as “gross” as some of these contemporary releases…
What do you think? Are books like Goop Soup a consequence of lowered societal expectations, yet another example of our increasing moral bankruptcy, or are they a savvy way to get reluctant readers excited about books and the world of literature?
Paul Goat Allen has been a full-time book reviewer specializing in genre fiction for almost the last two decades and has written more than 6,000 reviews for companies like Publishers Weekly, The Chicago Tribune, and BarnesandNoble.com.
I'm well over 50, and I can't remember a time in my life when little boys did not enjoy gross things. I also can't remember a time when those same little boys were not reluctant readers. So I say, if icky, gooey, smelly things are what keep them entertained, then by all means include them in books so that they will stay intrigued. Eventually, those boys will grow up to be men who have outgrown their fascination with goo (well, most of them anyway 
) -- but there's a good chance that if we get them interested in reading while young, they will have the reading skills necessary to broaden their minds later.
Actually, thinking back, I seem to recall teachers using comic books to entice boys to read -- and they contained a whole lot of slimy gross things, too.
