Part of being an effective illustrator (and that's what these are, illustrations) is being able to convey the message clearly. If a lot of people are seeing a negative message in naked children placed in nightmare situations (and yes, some of those are nightmares I might have had as a child, as I had a pretty unpleasant childhood on many counts), then the problem may lie partly with the viewers, but the message isn't being conveyed quite as effectively as the illustrator would like. It's quite true that not everyone sees things the same way, but effective communication means that the communicator has to make every effort to communicate, and the receiver also has to make the effort to understand. Please don't take my comment on the nightmarish quality of some of the images as a slam. I really did have nightmares about being naked and in pain and pursued by witches or demons or whatever. And for what it's worth, I loved "The Little Princess." It IS a story of survival. The child is abandoned, helpless, alone, shuffled off to live in a fithy attic and forced to work like a slave, and yet she survives to become the princess she always knew she was. Seems like a pretty positive message to me. ;-) bonni

"When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch." - Bette Davis