Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

“Sylvester and the Magic Pebble” by William Steig was my favorite book as a child. I must have had my mother read it to me a thousand times. As a Christmas gift last year, my mother gave me the Restored Deluxe Edition, which included my very own magic pebble charm. (I have yet to find it’s magical powers, but I’ll keep you posted)

For those of you unfamiliar with the book, it is a talking-animal fantasy about a young donkey named Sylvester who finds a magic pebble. By a very unlucky turn of events, which includes a very scary lion, Sylvester accidentally turns himself into a rock with no way of transforming himself back into a donkey. The characters in the book are all depicted as animals: chickens, dogs, cats, wolves, donkeys, and pigs.

The controversy and subsequent banning came about because of Steig’s depiction of policemen as uniformed pigs. In 1977 (seven years after Steig won the Caldecott Medal for Sylvester and the Magic Pebble), the Illinois Police Association wrote to many Illinois librarians asking them to remove the book from their shelves. Apparently, Illinois policemen were not the only ones offended because similar requests were made in eleven other states. The International Conference of Police Associations agreed that the depiction of policemen as pigs was derogatory and the book was banned in several places.

In my opinion, the policemen pigs are depicted in a positive light…they are the first animals that Sylvester’s parents went to for help and they are actually quite cute. Obviously Steig denied any political intention. He told Time magazine that he viewed pigs as a good symbol for all mankind. He stated that they are ''a creature surrounded with filth and danger, a victim of circumstances created by himself, unwilling and unable to do anything about his condition -- and even, perhaps, in a way enjoying it''. It seems silly now to think about banning a book for this reason, but tensions were very different in 1970 than they are today. In any account, all of the publicity was extremely helpful to book sales and it is still popular today, almost 40 years later.

One of my favorite quotes from Steig came from his acceptance speech for the Caldecott Medal. I feel like it sums up his playful and imaginative nature that so obviously shines through in his stories.
“Art, including juvenile literature, has the power to make any spot on earth the living center of the universe; and unlike science, which often gives us the illusion of understanding things we really do not understand, it helps us to know life in a way that still keeps before us the mystery of things. It enhances the sense of wonder. And wonder is respect for life.”