milk for the morning cake: a MAURICE SENDAK poll

excluding a zillion collaborations, pop-up books, etc.

(and i don't believe that quote up top either, his books are full of morals. but i respect it as a principle.)

Night Kitchen - Wild Things is probably slightly better, but it will be a clean sweep anyway.

http://a1055.g.akamai.net/f/1055/1401/5h/images.barnesandnoble.com/images/7390000/7391088.jpg
http://ak.buy.com/db_assets/large_images/811/30939811.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51M5S9E1QQL._SS400_.jpg

I don't know all of them, but I am very fond of Outside, Over There. I also have an odd little book called In Grandpa's House in which MS illustrated one of his father's stories. Classic Sendak, funny and troubling.

http://a1055.g.akamai.net/f/1055/1401/5h/images.barnesandnoble.com/images/10230000/10231166.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6f/Where_The_Wild_Things_Are.jpg
http://cdn.harpercollins.com/harperimages/isbn/large/2/9780064434362.jpg

No Chicken Soup With Rice, no credibility.

http://www.reverebooksonline.com/pictures/2053.jpg
(out of print, only image i could find)
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KQSTM1RGL._SS500_.jpg
http://images.alibris.com/isbn/9780064431392.gif
(also out of print)

chicken soup with rice is part of the nutshell library (along with alligators all around, one was johnny and pierre. they seem to be always listed and sold collectively, so i didn't break them out.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61M7HN9C12L._SS500_.jpg
http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/1740000/1741882.gif
(out of print)
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61N2QJ3KJNL._SS400_.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61F904ZRE2L._SS500_.jpg
http://cdn.harpercollins.com/harperimages/isbn/large/2/9780060286422.jpg

I didn't know that, tipsy!

i'm torn being night kitchen and higglety pigglety pop, but i think i'll vote for h.p.p. because possibly no one else will. that book fascinated and disturbed me at a certain point. (which is probably true of a lot of these.)

His books really are full of morals.

I'd rather say that his books are thoroughly moral works; I don't think they're written to instruct, though, as much as they are true to him/themselves.

"The moral of Pierre is: CARE!"

In lots of ways they're also extremely violent and subversive and despairing/depressing! Esp in their own time -- but even frequently in ours.

Yeah, they are creepy in a way that not a lot of other books I read as a child were. They appeal to some deeply-rooted, weird child fears, like being eaten.

I don't think they're written to instruct, though, as much as they are true to him/themselves.

yeah i think that's a good way to put it. interesting consistency of themes -- children running away and/or being taken from home, usually returning but with some sense that the world has changed in the interim (because their sense of the world has changed). in the night kitchen for me totally captures the childhood mystery of nighttime, what happens in the world while you sleep. (also the mystery of cities, in the same way wild things gets at the mystery of the wilderness. the genius of the art is a given, but his writing can be so good too: "that very night in max's room a forest grew." what a great sentence.

outside over there scared the shit out of me as a child

still kind of does

(i've been reading either night kitchen or wild things to the kid almost every night, which is why the poll. and here's a question: if you read wild things out loud, what do you do/say during those wordless pages of the wild rumpus? it doesn't seem enough to me to just say nothing, so me and the kid just recite "rumpus! rumpus! rumpus! rumpus!" in escalating volume, pounding our hands on the bed.)

xp It's pretty terrifying, really. The abdication of grown-ups from their rational protective parenting roles, abandonment, responsibility. Uh I don't want to think about that stuff NOW and I'm about to be 32.

Def. either night kitchen or wild things. I want to vote for the dark horse but wild things is just so stupendously classic...

I'll get back to you on the rumpus when the time comes!

Seeing that cover of In the Night Kitchen gives me the strange sensation of wearing pajamas with feet on them.

That is adorable.

my son is obsessed with In the the Night Kitchen, way beyond the level I thought he'd be (he's only 22months) when we bought it. He relates everything to it now; puts a bowl on his head and it's "Mickey's hat!". Wakes up in the morning and says "Milk! Morning cake!"

I never read this book when I was a kid for some reason, it's the druggiest thing ever.

he also likes the Mommy! pop up book. Need to get more Sendak, clearly.

me and the kid just recite "rumpus! rumpus! rumpus! rumpus!" in escalating volume

that's what we do too.

I like those wordless pages, and the image-less "and it was still hot" is cool too.

But my kiddo mostly likes the private boat for Max more than anything.

I like Hobans

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51P8Z15CAVL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg

another current bedtime favorite is a very special house by ruth krauss, with sendak illustrations, which i never read as a kid but was one of my wife's childhood favorites. lots of fun to read, great rhythm to the language. (and i didn't know until just looking her up now that ruth kruass was married to crockett johnson. cool.)

krauss, that is.

Ruth Krauss and Sendak both published/mentored by editrix extraordinaire Ursula Nordstrom!

At Harper's Books for Tots.

aw, Bread and Jam for Frances

If I regressed back to kindergarten I would probably want to marry Frances the Badger even more than the cute twins that made me smile in spite of my hard-ass 4.5 yr. old persona at the time

if your biggest pop culture formative influences at age 4.5 are the Fonz and Mork from Ork then god help you

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

http://www.92y.org/shop/event_detail.asp?category=Programs888Events888Literary+Readings+and+Performances888Main+Reading+Series888&productid=T%2DTP5MS34

Laurel, I assume you've read the "Dear Ursula" book? I checked it out once but never read it.

I vote for Nutshell Library--something about miniaturizing Sendak mitigates the scariness and the uncanniness. Also love soundtrack and film "Really, Rosie" which I think has gotten parental props on this board.

"Mommy" is great--all of our pop-ups are reference only, and the kids just pore over them all day long.

Brundibar is interesting.

http://www.rosenbach.org/shopsite/media/Brundibar.jpg

i'd love to read a biography of this guy. are there any?

The New Yorker has done a couple of stories. Get your hands on this one, as long as you don't mind having any illusions about Sendak shattered.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/04/17/060417fa_fact_zarin

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

HBO doc airing tomorrow

Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak

Filmmakers Lance Bangs and Spike Jonze present an intimate look at the life of noted children's book writer and illustrator, Maurice Sendak, a seminal talent at times conflicted with his success and whose lifelong obsession with death has subtly influenced his work. Now 81 and living in Connecticut, Sendak is best known for his first (and most famous) book, Where the Wild Things Are, which he wrote after being a book illustrator for over 10 years. Though it was originally panned, Wild Things would eventually become one of the most beloved and critically lauded children's books of all time and, to Sendak's chagrin, came to define his career. Through his words, old pictures and illustrations, Tell Them Anything You Want offers a deeply personal look at an otherwise private and somewhat isolated man. Premieres on Wednesday, October 14 at 7pm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOWSzb0wmJs

man, maurice must be making so much bank this year. i wonder how you spend a massive windfall when you're in your early 80s.

eat out more often

Thanks for posting about the documentary, it premieres tonight at 7PM EST. Here is a schedule with some additional airdates:

http://www.hbo.com/apps/schedule/ScheduleServlet?ACTION_DETAIL=DETAIL&FOCUS_ID=712469

this doc was awesome imo

many fun facts, like outside over there was inspired by sendak's childhood terror after learning of the lindbergh kidnapping

I hope nobody watches it w/ their kids, sendak is fond of the word motherfucker

Absolutely, absolutely wonderful interview on Fresh Air b/w an agéd and sober Sendak, on his legacy, death, and new book. Can't recommend it enough - he's a little hazy at points, but never loses the thread. About his new book Bumble Ardy

Sendak says that he worked on Bumble-ardy while taking care of his longtime partner, Eugene Glynn, who died of lung cancer in 2007.

"When I did Bumble-ardy, I was so intensely aware of death," he says. "Eugene, my friend and partner, was dying here in the house when I did Bumble-ardy. I did Bumble-ardy to save myself. I did not want to die with him. I wanted to live as any human being does. But there's no question that the book was affected by what was going on here in the house. ... Bumble-ardy was a combination of the deepest pain and the wondrous feeling of coming into my own. And it took a long time. It took a very long time."

Listen here:

http://www.npr.org/2011/09/20/140435330/this-pig-wants-to-party-maurice-sendaks-latest

http://www.daemonsbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Bumble-Ardy-550x440.jpg

Amazing interview. Amazing guy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/oct/02/maurice-sendak-interview

Just this part alone!

Of Salman Rushdie, who once gave him a terrible review in the New York Times, he says: "That flaccid fuckhead. He was detestable. I called up the Ayatollah, nobody knows that."

Just came to post that interview. I never bothered to try to watch the movie of Where The Wild Things Are but I did see the documentary the Spike Jonze made about him at the the same time and there was some hilarious stuff in that.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.m/the_big_picture/2009/10/spike-jonze-is-wild-about-maurice-sendak.html?p=2
This was my favorite part:

In one extraordinary scene, Jonze films Sendak reimagining his mind-set as an ambitious young artist, almost greedy for success. "I want to be famous, I want to be snooty," Sendak says, reconnecting with his younger self. "I want to have a big, gray shiny car and everybody will see it. Here comes Big Mo! Holy [moly]. It's him, it's him! Sure I'll give you an autograph, you [expletive]."

NYT twitter feed reporting Sendak has died...

Aw man. But such a life!

I want to pimp this interview again. Introspective, sad, and brilliant Maurice Sendak on mortality, his sexuality, childhood, inspiration, and looking out the window.

wow. really sad news.

NYT obit now up -- cause was complications from a recent stroke:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/books/maurice-sendak-childrens-author-dies-at-83.html

RIP. A helluva a guy.

Woah at Spike Jonze native Brooklynite connection.

Love the description of his books:

"Roundly praised, intermittently censored and occasionally eaten..."

"I have nothing now but praise for my life. I'm not unhappy. I cry a lot because I miss people. They die and I can't stop them. They leave me and I love them more. ... What I dread is the isolation. ... There are so many beautiful things in the world which I will have to leave when I die, but I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready."

Oh wow, RIP Mr. Sendak. Thank you for freeing up the minds and spirits of children and human beings everywhere.

I just read Night Kitchen to the kids at bedtime last night, for the who-knows-how-manyth time? Tonight we'll do Wild Things, for sure.

i don't think i've ever read my daughter a Sendak book. maybe tnite will be the first...

Bumble-Ardy – his last – is really lovely and dark.

its hard to be sad sad because he livef such a rich, complicated, long life. but jesus this is like someone telling me my irascible great-uncle maurice just died.

otm but RIP anyway

his recent ubiquity on TV (HBO doc, colbert appearances) was a real gift

His interview with Colbert is one of my favourite things I've seen on TV recently. Such an awesome dude, RIP.

fucking hell.

RIP

this makes me crazy sad.

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