What Scary Looks Like

There’s an episode of “Speed Racer” where terrifying creatures with claw-like hands reach out of dark places to plague the Mach 5 crew. I probably saw it only once, I may even have morphed it into something more ominous than it was, but the images of it, real or contrived, have stayed with me into adulthood. There was something so relentless and spidery and malicious about them that they have come to represent an amalgam of all the things scaring me when they go bump in the night. I even feel their cold claws grasping at the edges of my self-confidence sometimes. Everything bad and creepy rolled into one tangle of a mess. I don’t remember any of the dialogue, no words or phrases, which is odd for a person obsessed with language, I only carry with me what I saw. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but as a talking kind of gal, I often think words are worth a thousand words--except in the case of the creepy spider claws. No words necessary there. And I couldn’t help but think of that while experiencing today’s book. Since the whole point of reading Scarlett a new book every day was to read, we have included very few picture books so far, but I thought Molly Bang’s Caldecott winner The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher would be a nice departure. Except for how it was crazy scary. I think I have a new image of what’s creepy.

http://www.amazon.com/Grey-Lady-Strawberry-Snatcher/dp/0027081400

http://www.mollybang.com/Pages/picture.html