Written in 1981, almost twenty years after Where the Wild Things Are but still two years before my birth, Outside Over There is a changeling story. I fell in love with what’s now my favorite of his books- Outside Over There-in a children’s literature course I took during my undergraduate years. These books make wonderful introductions to poetry for elementary students, particularly The Bat-Poet. In the world of illustrated books, he began collaborating with author and poet Randall Jarrell, a collaboration they would continue through 4 books. A lifetime lover of dogs, Sendak often featured his beloved pets in his picture books. He based the character on his own Sealyham Terrier, Jennie. It’s just as fun to read as an adult than as a child. But she’s got to pick up some experience first. Once traveling, she sets her heart on becoming the leading lady in The World Mother Goose Theatre. In it, Jennie the dog decides despite living the perfect doggie existence, she must go out and see the world and experience life. The only ones offended are the narrow-minded adults.Ī few years before Night Kitchen was published, Sendak wrote and illustrated the hilarious chapter book Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More To Life. Six-year-olds have seen plenty of naked toddlers. As usual, people who ban books make a mountain out of nonexistent problems. Instead, I examined the buildings in the background-a tea kettle filled with windows, a tall square building called “CAKE” with beaters on top, a building called “TA-KA-KAKE” (“What’s ta-ka-kake?” I thought. But I don’t remember giving Mickey’s penis a second thought as a child. In the Night Kitchen is banned because Mickey doesn’t wear clothes in his dream. And here again we have the dreamworld theme. Night Kitchen doesn’t use the same crosshatch drawing style as Wild Things instead, the illustrations are dark and vivid and bold. If I’d been a discerning child, I would’ve noticed that Mickey from Night Kitchen looked awfully similar to Max, and that just like in Wild Things, the pages with Mickey at home are small, but once he enters his dreamworld with the bakers, the illustrations fill the page, the bakers-like the wild things-looming over-large and over-smiling. My favorite children’s books were often those that left me scratching my head. It was just another book to read that I found confusing but also enjoyable. I didn’t notice the name Maurice Sendak on the page and associate it with Where the Wild Things Are. Like many young children, authors meant nothing. I remember the red haired school librarian reading it to the class, and later I remember reading it by myself. I read In the Night Kitchen in elementary school. While the only book Sendak authored to win the Caldecott Award was Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen (1970) is a Caldecott honor book, and is his second most well-known book, as well as the most banned. In the Night Kitchen and the ’60s and ’70s In fact, there’s something very Max-like in the upright Little Bear. Minarik’s simple and sweet stories pair beautifully with Sendak’s expressive little bear. And he illustrated my favorite early readers series- Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik. In A Hole is to Dig by Ruth Krauss, an author he frequently collaborated with, he utilized the same crosshatching technique he would later implement in Wild Things, and it’s a super cute book, another small sized book aimed at preschoolers. We can dress as our own wild things, and romp through the house on a wild rumpus, together.īut he had plenty of experience illustrating at that point, with more than 40 collaborations with authors and working at FAO Schwarz creating children’s window displays. I look forward to reading his books with her when she’s a little older, and asking her what she thinks. I recently gave my one-year-old the same wild thing stuffed animal I had as a kid, and read Wild Things to her for the first time. Now, I own about thirty Maurice Sendak books, including several first editions and one signed. It wasn’t until I started working in a used bookstore that I discovered how vast Maurice Sendak’s bibliography was, and when I started collecting his books. Where the Wild Things Are is rightfully iconic and memorable, playing an important part in many children’s reading lives. I became Max as I read, and enacted the wild things within me that I couldn’t in public, something I continue to do today, if with different books. From Max in his wolf costume chasing after his dog, to wild things hanging off trees and roaring their terrible roars, I saw my desires enacted on the page. Despite being a child that did not agree with being naughty, Where the Wild Things Are became one of my favorite books.