# Nudity in Children's Books (spoilers very likely; minor Harry Potter spoiler in OP) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 14, 2003, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nudity-in-childrens-books-spoilers-very-likely-minor-harry-potter-spoiler-in-op/213254 "2003-11-14T15:47:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Loneraven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c0e974/32.png) [@Loneraven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loneraven)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nudity-in-childrens-books-spoilers-very-likely-minor-harry-potter-spoiler-in-op/213254/41 "2003-11-15T18:47:44Z")
**KGS** , I think that’s not _Margaret_, it’s _Deenie_. ---
**Author:** ![Second\_Star\_to\_the\_Right](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3bc359/32.png) [@Second\_Star\_to\_the\_Right](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Second_Star_to_the_Right)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2003, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nudity-in-childrens-books-spoilers-very-likely-minor-harry-potter-spoiler-in-op/213254/42 "2003-11-16T05:38:16Z")
I think you’re right, \*\* Loneraven \*_- I never read_ Deenie, \*but I know that never happened in \* AYTGIMM. \* ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2003, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nudity-in-childrens-books-spoilers-very-likely-minor-harry-potter-spoiler-in-op/213254/43 "2003-11-16T05:55:02Z")
It was definitely _Deenie_. ---
**Author:** ![terd\_ferguson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@terd\_ferguson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terd_ferguson)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2003, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nudity-in-childrens-books-spoilers-very-likely-minor-harry-potter-spoiler-in-op/213254/44 "2003-11-16T06:28:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Johnny L.A. \* > \*\* > That was rather… disturbing. I mean King had to sit there and think about 10-year-olds having sex, and then he had to write it. Just a bit too creepy. \*\* It has been a long while since I read it, so I may be misremembering things a bit, but I don’t think it was what would be called an orgy. All the guys did have sex with the girl at some point, but it was somewhat more of a bonding thing than just casual group sex. Not that I am trying to defend what he wrote. And this isn’t what would normally be defined as a Children’s book. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2003, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nudity-in-childrens-books-spoilers-very-likely-minor-harry-potter-spoiler-in-op/213254/45 "2003-11-16T19:38:49Z")
Re Banned Books: The ALA (American Library Association) sponsors Banned Books week each year to call attention to the fact that some people still want to censor what other people read. See their website. Re The Lord of the Rings: I can’t believe you all forgot the scene where Sam rescues Frodo. [spoiler ahead] Frodo had been taken captive by the Orcs after he was stung by Shelob, and Sam mistakenly thought he was dead. It says in the book that Frodo was stripped of everything - his sword Sting, his mithril vest, his clothes and (he fears) the one ring. That’s naked, I’d say. ---
**Author:** ![Innanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecd19e/32.png) [@Innanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Innanna)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2003, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nudity-in-childrens-books-spoilers-very-likely-minor-harry-potter-spoiler-in-op/213254/46 "2003-11-16T21:30:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > \*\*I’m thinking that **Cervaise** and **Ranchoth** were joking there… Or maybe it’s all part of a nefarious plan to get _A Wrinkle in Time_ onto banned-books lists, thereby guaranteeing that unprecedented numbers of kids will read it… \*\* I think that it has been banned. I think it was on **Darkhold** ’s link as well as here, [http://solonor.com/bannedbooks/archives/001742.html](http://solonor.com/bannedbooks/archives/001742.html) where they say that it has been banned for promoting “…witchcraft, crystal balls, and demons. \ [and for] listing the name of Jesus Christ together with the names of great artists, philosophers, scientists, and religious leaders when referring to those who defend earth against evil.” People are dumb.:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2003, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nudity-in-childrens-books-spoilers-very-likely-minor-harry-potter-spoiler-in-op/213254/47 "2003-11-16T22:42:44Z")
At the end of The Neverending Story – the BOOK – Bastien ends up naked, though I think it’s more symbolic than anything. It’s not a book for young kids, and is a bit weird even for me, but there’s definitely a naked kid. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2003, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nudity-in-childrens-books-spoilers-very-likely-minor-harry-potter-spoiler-in-op/213254/48 "2003-11-16T23:55:36Z")
I’m not surprised about _A Wrinkle in Time_, frankly, though I did rather wonder how the Religious Right would phrase condemnation of a pro-God book. Still all for the good, though: Nothing encourages readers like a banning. And **well he’s back** , I knew there was a scene I was missing, there! Thanks for remembering that one. ---
**Author:** ![Judith\_Prietht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@Judith\_Prietht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Judith_Prietht)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2003, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nudity-in-childrens-books-spoilers-very-likely-minor-harry-potter-spoiler-in-op/213254/49 "2003-11-17T16:07:59Z")
Thanks all for the replies! I’d forgotten all about _From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler_ until I saw it mentioned here, which brought back some great memories. I had Judy Blume flashbacks all weekend ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2003, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nudity-in-childrens-books-spoilers-very-likely-minor-harry-potter-spoiler-in-op/213254/50 "2003-11-17T17:40:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Askia \* > \*\*I own a reprint of the 1899 original text, along with reproductions of the original Helen Bannermanart, and there’s definitely no nudity in _The Story of Little Black Sambo._ Perhaps you misremember… or is this another version of the story you’re talking about? \*\* I am sure it is a later printing because I managed a bookstore in the late '70s and a woman had parked her child in our children’s section while she went to some other part of the store and a while later I hear a child say “He doesn’t have no clothes on, Mommy.” I got up to see what the problem was (thinking someone had possibly disrobed in my store) and the child had our copy of “_Little Black Sambo_” that we left out for the children to look through and sure enough on one of the final pages there stood the naked backside of Sambo as partially dressed tigers chased each other around some pilar of some sort. But disregarding the illustrations, the whole premis (as I remember it) of the story is the tigers little by little getting Sambo’s clothing until he has none. Looking back it sounds sort of like some huge metaphor for child porn. TV ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2003, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nudity-in-childrens-books-spoilers-very-likely-minor-harry-potter-spoiler-in-op/213254/51 "2003-11-17T19:28:53Z")
> [@](#): > > But disregarding the illustrations, the whole premis (as I remember it) of the story is the tigers little by little getting Sambo’s clothing until he has none. I thought that the premise was Sambo tricking the tgers into melting themselves into butter, which he then ate on pancakes? Or am I remembering a different story? Now, admittedly, that’s pretty weird, but kiddy porn it ain’t. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2003, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nudity-in-childrens-books-spoilers-very-likely-minor-harry-potter-spoiler-in-op/213254/52 "2003-11-17T21:09:01Z")
Little black Sambo goes out wearing fancy new clothes that his mother made for him. He is ambushed by tigers, who demand the clothes. But soon the tigers are fighting over who looks grandest wearing their loot, and they chase each other around a tree until they all melt into a puddle of butter. Sambo reclaims his clothes and goes home, and his father Black Jumbo takes home a pot of the butter for Black Mumbo to make pancakes for all. What a day! [Original text here.](http://digital.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=1330) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nudity-in-childrens-books-spoilers-very-likely-minor-harry-potter-spoiler-in-op/213254/53 "2003-11-18T01:28:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Already in Use \* > \*\*In Dr. Seuss’ _Happy Birthday to You!_, the Birthday Bird takes a kid to some giant fountain thing where he gets naked and swims around. \*\* Seuss portrays naked characters quite a lot - for examplem, in _The Zax_, the two creatures are not exactly human, but they are clearly naked. ---
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nudity-in-childrens-books-spoilers-very-likely-minor-harry-potter-spoiler-in-op/213254/54 "2003-11-18T01:43:23Z")
> [@](#): > > Seuss portrays naked characters quite a lot - for examplem, in The Zax, the two creatures are not exactly human, but they are clearly naked. Or there’s _The Seven Lady Godivas_ - one of Seuss’s harder-to-find books. 🙂 (I’m not making it up, though. Really.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nudity-in-childrens-books-spoilers-very-likely-minor-harry-potter-spoiler-in-op/213254.md?page=2)