The Chocolate Touch

The Chocolate Touch is a children's book by Patrick Skene Catling, first published in the USA in 1952. John Midas is delighted when, through a magical gift, everything his lips touch turns into chocolate. The story is patterned after the myth of King Midas, whose magic turned everything he touched into gold. The original illustrations were by Mildred Coughlin McNutt, but another edition in the same year, a "newly illustrated" edition, had illustrations by Margot Apple and more pages.^[1]

Themes

The Chocolate Touch covers roughly the same narrative as the myth of King Midas, but in changing the object of its protagonist's desire, modifies its target in significant ways. The myth of King Midas, who loved gold above all things, targets greed as its main theme, while The Chocolate Touch highlights another of the Seven Deadly Sins, gluttony. Both stories deal with self-centeredness vs. compassion, though The Chocolate Touch does so in a manner accessible to children. Although John's self-centeredness is unlike most other cases of self-centeredness that put other people at a disadvantage; in John's case he wants his family to stop telling him what he can and cannot eat. Towards the end of the story John comes to realize that his parents' and doctor's demand for healthy eating was for his own good. While people reading the myth of King Midas may not all have daughters of their own, almost all have mothers. In recasting the Midas story with a younger protagonist, author Catling hits on some of children's worst fears, albeit with a light touch.

Significance

The Chocolate Touch is still in print, and is often used in grade school curricula throughout the United States.^[2][3] It won the Massachusetts Children's Book Award^[4] in 1989, the Utah Children's Choice Honors Award in 1983,^[5] and the Beehive Award^[6] from the Children's Literature Association of Utah in 1983.

References