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5 Fictional Grinches We Love
Everyone is supposed to cheer when the Grinch’s heart grows three sizes and he’s filled with Christmas spirit near the end of Dr. Seuss’s enduring classic How The Grinch Stole Christmas, but some of us, to be honest, kind of miss the old Grinch with his devilishly slanted eyebrows, his sneering ways, and his disdain for joyful noise. We love such crabby characters perhaps because even when they’re oddly shaped and covered with green fur, they’re unmistakably human. They remind us of ourselves in our grouchy moments, or at least of our cranky old neighbor across the street, shaking his fist at us. After all, what would Sesame Street be without Oscar? As my six-year-old once told me, “They have to have Oscar because without him, there’d be no conflict.” Here are five more stories featuring fabulous Grinch-type characters, who delight with their blunt opinions and rude behavior, while reminding us of our endless capacity to change.
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Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great, by Bob Shea
Whether you’re a regular kid perpetually outshined by a do-no-wrong, over-achiever sibling or an office cubicle worker annoyed by the flaunted perfection of a colleague, you can’t help but identify with Goat in this funny book by Bob Shea. When a unicorn with magical powers moves to town, Goat gets grouchy. When Goat bakes marshmallow squares, Unicorn shows him up by making it rain cupcakes, among many other indignities. “Dopey Unicorn! Thinks he’s so great!” Goat grumbles. But Goat doesn’t just whine—he asserts the value of his ordinary ungulate self. When Unicorn asks him, “What is up with your hooves? Those things are out of control!” Goat tells him proudly, “These bad boys are ‘cloven.’ It means they’re split at the end.” Goat, who embodies every Grinch in all of us, even finds the confidence to befriend the overachieving Unicorn.
Thank You, Octopus, by Darren Farrell
I don’t know if I’ve ever heard my son giggle as much as he did over this picture book by Darren Farrell, set on a boat in New York harbor in which an octopus is ostensibly trying to get a little boy ready for bed. But Octopus can’t help himself—he can’t stop tricking his buddy. “I made you a nice warm bath,” Octopus says. His buddy replies, “Thank you, Octopus. ” “…of egg salad,” Octopus adds while the boy settles in to the gooey, mayonnaise-filled tub. He next offers to dry the boy off, “with my tuba!” and help him put his pajamas on, “on the Statue of Liberty, that is.” Somehow, despite all the trickery, the boy manages to get ready for bed, and even turn the tables on Octopus.
Bad Bears in the Big City: An Irving & Muktuk Story, by Daniel Pinkwater
Irving and Muktuk are bad polar bears, living at a New Jersey zoo, that star in several of Pinkwater’s picture books. “But they are not extremely bad,” Pinkwater writes. “For example, they have never eaten a person—only muffins.” Still, the Director of the Zoo advises that they “are not to be trusted.” In this adventure, Irving and Muktuk decide to break out of the zoo and join a tour of a muffin factory next door. Things go deliciously awry, as you can imagine.
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C.R. Mudgeon, by Leslie Muir
C.R. Mudgeon is a stickler of a hedgehog, who, like the Grinch, prefers his neighborhood to be quiet, and like a true stick-in-the-mud, will accept no variance from his routine, eating celery root soup with no salt every day. One day, a vibrant squirrel named Paprika moves into the neighborhood, festooning her tree house with piñatas and a bright red door. The heavy spices she uses in her cooking waft into C.R. Mudgeon’s window and ruin his bland broth. Naturally, he complains to her, tries to spoil her maraca party, and generally behaves like a first-class grump, until he realizes that neighbors and friends come in handy.
Rude Cakes, by Rowboat Watkins
In this funny picture book, the part of the Grinch is played by an ill-mannered, pink, two-tiered cake. This cake doesn’t say thank you for birthday presents, wrestles toys away from poor little cupcakes, and never listens, “especially when their parents sound boring.” But in the end, Watkins writes, “Of course, no cake is ever too rude to change.”
Who are your favorite fictional grinches?