April 15, 2005
On Maurice Sendak
...In the Sendak world, stories unfold like dreams, where images connect emotionally and serendipitously, not by the logic imposed by grown-ups when they are awake. In much of his work, beauty and sorrow walk hand in hand.
That's a line from an article in today's New York Times about the Maurice Sendak exhibit at the Jewish Museum. For me, and for many of you I'm sure, Sendak always creates a incredible feeling of nostalgia for my childhood. Books like Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen are inextricably linked to evenings curled up with a book before falling asleep at night. If I were in New York, you know where I'd be this weekend...
That picture makes a smile on my face and sends my imagination running!!!
Posted by: ari at April 15, 2005 12:17 PMMy brother got my boy Josiah a Maurice Sendak DVD with Peter Schickle(sp?) reading and orchestrating the music to "where the wild things are". The other Sendak stories like "night kitchen" and "Chicken Soup with Rice" are great too, Carol King sings "chicken Soup..." and it's quite a flashback. I love it too because there is so much that's distinctly European in the way he writes and illustrates.
Posted by: katieK at April 15, 2005 03:17 PM"where the wild things are" is a classic, and well-deservedly so.
but "in the night kitchen" has got to be one of the must under-appreciated books for kids. i'm sure the images it conjures up for you are quite similar to mine, andy, since we were probably almost always sitting right next to each other whenever it was read to us...
i remember showing it to gel one time when we were back in g'ville, and she thought it looked kinda weird. it Is kinda weird - serendipitously and dreamily weird - and i thing that's one of the things i like about it so much.
niamh's getting into books more and more. (of course she doesn't understand a word, but she looks at every last thing on the page until you turn it.) maybe it's time to introduce her to mickey and his night adventures...
Posted by: jess at April 15, 2005 04:07 PM