Books like Dominic

My kids have been raised on a steady diet of William Steig; books like Sylvester and the Magic Pebble and Brave Irene have been a regular part of their childhoods.And, naturally, most of us have been at least a little influenced by Shrek (also Steig's creation).But, my family didn't know Dominic until I picked it up last month at a library sale.Dominic is a chapter book for older kids (and apparently their mothers, because I was fully involved in the story and crying by page 33).Sigh. I miss these children's books of the 1960s and 1970s. . . they're so much rowdier, so much more realistic than the books are now, where everything is sugarcoated and surely we're all immortal, now that God is dead and we all deserve a trophy for sucking at soccer. Don't get me wrong. . . I do NOT miss the racial stereotypes or visceral racism that I sometimes trip over in these older reads, but I do miss the more realistic openness of. . . yes, you're going to die, and maybe you DO believe in God, and maybe you don't, and sometimes parents make-out (the lucky ones) and it's okay to giggle a bit at a neighbor's wedding, because something's happening that night to the bride and groom that is not in your realm of understanding yet, but your imagination can summon something akin to the Fourth of July.And Dominic the protagonist (who's a dog, by the way), heads out in this well-written chapter book to explore some of these ideas. He has some mystical moments, like meeting a “witch-alligator” and an enchanted “pygmy elephant,” and he has some regular moments, like comforting a hurt friend and attending a wedding.But, no matter what he encounters, Dominic submits himself to the ebb and tide of life: “Oh, Life, I am yours. Whatever it is you want of me, I am ready to give.” (Sob)When a friend dies, he is there with his shovel to bury him:Then he leaned on the shovel to rest, the wooden handle warm with his work. The moment he stopped being busy, he felt his heart quake. He had to cry. Life was suddenly too sad. And yet it was beautiful. The beauty was dimmed when the sadness welled up. And the beauty would be there again when the sadness went. So the beauty and the sadness belonged together somehow, though they were not the same at all.When a gang of bad guys will not leave him alone, he finds a way to rationalize his experience:Fighting the bad ones in the world was a necessary and gratifying experience. Being happy among the good ones was, of course, even more gratifying. But one could not be happy among the good ones unless one fought bad ones. He felt he was serving some important and useful purpose.This is such a rare children's book, one that fully embraces both the painful mysteries and the joyful messes of life.