Jul
4
Original drawings by Maurice Sendak for Robert Graves’s The Big Green Book, 1962
(via fuckyeahreading)
the shrinking librarian
A shy violet keeps a library & information science scrapbook.
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Posts tagged Maurice Sendak
May
15
Artist Hannah Friederichs celebrates Maurice Sendak and The Avengers. To see how she did it, check out her Tumblr page.
(via libraryjournal)
May
8
“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim: I loved your card.” Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.” That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.” ― Maurice Sendak
(via kindlekwickstart)
Maurice Sendak, the children’s author and illustrator best known for the 1963 classic “Where the Wild Things Are,” has died at age 83.
The Brooklyn-born author lost many family members in the Holocaust and spent time in bed with health problems as a child. After seeing the Disney movie “Fantasia” at the age of 12, he resolved to become an illustrator.
Image: Ls / AP file
Sendak on death: “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.”
Feb
27
Maurice Sendak's Long History of Scaring Kids (and Their Parents) - Joe Fassler - Entertainment - The Atlantic
What does it mean when adults and children disagree? Why are kids drawn to books that frighten or perplex their parents? And to what degree can very young people be canny, sophisticated readers—able discern good books from bad, even as their grown-ups howl in protest?
Sendak has ventured some explanations. In 1964, when the American Library Association awarded Wild Things the Caldecott Medal for most distinguished illustrated book, the author used his acceptance speech to mount an articulate defense of child readers and their tastes. “[It’s] an awful fact of childhood,” he said. “The fact of [a child’s] vulnerability to fear, anger, hate, frustration—all the emotions that are an ordinary part of their lives and that they can only perceive as dangerous, ungovernable forces. To master these forces, children turn to fantasy: that imaginary world where disturbing emotional situations are solved to their satisfaction.”
It was hard to pull a quote because the whole article is fantastic, using Sendak to illustrate the different viewpoints on the real purpose of children’s literature. Should stories be safe places, or should they help teach young people how to cope with reality? It isn’t a debate unique to young children; similar discussions are always cropping up regarding young adult fiction, as well.
(via LISNews)
Nov
15
“I love my work very much, it means everything to me. I would like to see a time when children’s books were not segregated from adult books, a time when people didn’t think of children’s books as a minor art form, a little Peterpanville, a cutsey-darling place where you could Have Fun, Laugh Your Head Off. I know so many adult writers whom I would happily chop into pieces, who say, ‘Well I think I’ll take a moment and sit down and knock off a kiddy book! It looks like so much fun, it’s obviously easy…’ And, of course, they write a lousy book!”
Maurice Sendak (via libraryland)
Sep
23
The Children’s Authors Who Broke the Rules
“Once upon a more staid time, the purpose of children’s books was to model good behavior. They were meant to edify and to encourage young readers to be what parents wanted them to be, and the children in their pages were well behaved, properly attired and devoid of tears. Children’s literature was not supposed to shine a light on the way children actually were, or delight in the slovenly, self-interested and disobedient side of their natures.
Seuss, Sendak and Silverstein ignored these rules. They brought a shock of subversion to the genre — defying the notion that children’s books shouldn’t be scary, silly or sophisticated. Rather than reprimand the wayward listener, their books encouraged bad (or perhaps just human) behavior.”
(NYT via Library Stuff)
Mar
30
‘The Hobbit’ illustrated by Maurice Sendak? The 1960s masterpiece that could have been
guest essay by Tony DiTerlizzi
