Still Waiting for the Wild Things

By DAPHNE LEE

Tots to Teens, StarMag

THE Malaysian release date for Where the Wild Things Are film has been postponed. While we're waiting, here are some more books from Maurice Sendak, for Christmas or just anytime.

Sendak not only illustrated his own stories, but also the work of other writers.

Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories (HarperTrophy, 90 pages, ISBN: 978-0064401470) is a Newbery Honor collection of seven folktales by 1978 Nobel Prize for literature winner, Isaac Bashevis Singer. Originally written in Yiddish, the stories tell of the lives, adventures and (mostly) misadventures of various simple country folk.

A number of the tales are set in the village of Chelm, which is inhabited solely by fools. The village is ruled by the seven Elders - the "oldest and greatest fools" in Chelm. They have long white beards and high foreheads from "thinking too much", and when they consider a problem they have to clutch their beards and cover their foreheads with their hands.

Facing the book's title page is Sendak's illustration of the seven Elders. There they stand, looking totally flummoxed - and who can blame them when they have to deal with difficulties such as four sisters getting their feet mixed up under the bed clothes! (The Mixed-Up Feet and the Silly Bridegroom)

In this book, Sendak's fine pen drawings are highly detailed, with plenty of shading and cross-hatching. The blunt-featured, slightly large-headed figures with their expressive faces are recognisably Sendak's.

As detailed, but with thicker darker pencil outlines are Sendak's illustrations for In Granpa's House (HarperCollins, 48 pages, ISBN: 978-0060287870), a story told by his father Philip Sendak and translated and adapted from the original American-Yiddish, by Seymour Barofsky. The best part of this book is before the start of the story-proper, when Sendak snr recalls his early years in America, his marriage, and the birth of his children. Of his famous writer and artist son, he says "Maurice's laugh was a little bell." Lovely!

Perhaps my favourite of all the books that were illustrated but not written by Sendak is The Griffin and the Minor Canon. (HarperCollins, 56 pages, ISBN: 978-0060297312). Sendak's pen drawings here are tinted with a limited palette of coloured inks of which yellow is the most vibrant, especially on the great curved beak of the griffin.

Sendak writes in his foreword that he wasn't sure how to illustrate the mythological beast as his research revealed that it should have hind legs, whereas the author, Frank R. Stockton, describes it has having none, its body simply running out into a "long and powerful tail".

Sendak decided on legs and his griffin is a large, handsome, lordly-looking creature. The minor canon on the other hand is a slight stooping figure in black. Still, he is judged by the griffin as "brave and good and honest", the only human the creature would relish eating as everyone else is cowardly, mean and selfish.

The story is original, amusing and rather moving. The illustration of the griffin tending to a sick baby is alone worth the price of the book.

It's back to Sendak's cartoony style in Amos Vogel's How Little Lori Visited Times Square (HarperCollins, 64 pages, ISBN: 978-0060284626), the tale of a little boy who wants to see Times Square but keeps ending up somewhere different in New York. In the end he meets a tortoise who claims to know the way. The book ends quite unexpectedly and although not written by Sendak, I believe it echoes the same sense of humour Sendak shows in his own books like Very Far Away and The Sign on Rosie's Door.

Finally, Hector Protector and As I Went Over the Water (HarperCollins, 64 pages, ISBN: 978-0060286422) are two nursery rhymes, each comprising a handful of words, but turned into a full-blown adventure thanks to Sendak's humorous illustrations (in the same style used in Where the Wild Things Are). In fact, hero of As I Went Over the Water is a Max-look-alike and the monster he meets on his voyage might be one of the wild things - the look of devotion on its face suggests it was out searching for the king of all wild things and thinks it's found him!

Comments

[Han Ming H]

Hi Daphne, I am a passionate teenage writer who write short stories. Missed your workshop in March (darn!), and I'm still finding for creative writing workshops to attend, but couldn't find any so far. I've a BIG dream of becoming a successful author in the future, though the dream seemed impossible. I ocassionally write short stories for the Star newspaper, and so far two of them have been published. :) (Yipee) So just wondering when are you going to organise the next workshop? :)