Like Maurice Sendak? I wrote about his books in my Tots to Teens column and I'm pasting the article here.
Oodles of charm and energy
I DISCOVERED the delights of Maurice Sendak when I was well into my 20s. I read an article about the writer/illustrator in The Times Literary Supplement and fell deeply in love with the featured illustration of Max (from Where the Wild Things Are) cavorting with a bevy of wild things. I have been a fan ever since and am still busy collecting his books.
Here’re some of the reasons why I like Sendak so much ...
His storytelling style is a little whimsical, a little ironic and mocking, sometimes jaunty, sometimes wistful. Outside over There, about a little girl who carelessly allows her baby sister to be kidnapped by goblins, is a little dark and disturbing, but Sendak’s tone is mostly warm, friendly and teasing.
He’s at his best when telling us about naughty children who are sometimes punished, but who always get their act together by figuring things out for themselves. It’s lovely that he’s never preachy, not even when he calls his story Pierre: A Cautionary Tale in Five Chapters and a Prologue. Here, Pierre is an apathetic little soul (“I don’t care” is his stock response to everything) who gets eaten by a lion. The lion is upended and Pierre emerges unhurt but reformed – he now cares a great deal!
It’s hard to decide which I love more: Pierre’s or the lion’s face. Both pop up in this book and that. Sendak likes re-using characters, but they have such varied lives and expressions and appear in so many guises you think of them as quick-change-artists rather than of the writer having a limited imagination.
He puts so much energy into every character so it’s easy to imagine them having lives outside the books they appear in. They’re very real even if they’re doing completely fantasy-type things like being king of the wild things or being eaten by lions. At the end of each book you can imagine Max or Pierre or Hector trotting off and having other exciting adventures which may or may not be written or drawn about.
And then, even if it’s simply a matter of what’s on the page, pay attention: Sendak’s illustrations tell you so much more than the text (Look at the chap in As I Went over the Water and his love-hate relationship with a sea monster!) This gift of telling a story (sometimes several stories) within a story is what separates great illustrators from those who are merely technically proficient. Oh, Sendak definitely has oodles of ideas.
Over the Water is one of the many instances where he illustrates tales or rhymes that aren’t his own, but makes them his entirely. Elsa Holmelund Minarik’s Little Bear books, for instance, owe their charm almost entirely to Sendak’s drawings. That’s my feeling anyway.
Finally, I have to mention my favourite alphabet book of all time, written and drawn by Sendak. Alligators All Around is a tiny little book with a rather disproportionate price tag. I think it’s worth every sen, though, because it’s really hilarious and a joy from the first page to the last. The alphabet is illustrated by a family of alligators “looking like lions”, “throwing tantrums”, “having headaches”, etc. (The baby alligator reminds me of my second son!) Many of Sendak’s books were recently re-issued by HarperTrophy and can be found at most good bookstores, failing which they should be able to place orders for you.
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