The Other Maurice, Not the Bee-Gee

I was introduced to Maurice Sendak by Dave Eggers (see earlier post), one of my favorite literary figures. Dave Eggers wrote The Wild Things, an adult fiction novel inspired by Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are.

  

I love the originality of a furry cover wrapping Eggers' tome, and it is on my list of books to read.

Dave Eggers recently wrote about Maurice Sendak's new story-book, Bumble-Ardy, in Vanity Fair magazine, and I quickly went online to pre-order this new book.



And so, my mind was on Maurice Sendak when I happened upon a Chinese translation of Where the Wild Things Are at Eslite in Taipei (see earlier post). Next to the translated book were two more Sendak books in English, which I also purchased:

  

I was taken aback by how dark the stories are: children being added to the dough for making break in the night kitchen, and baby sisters kidnapped (to be child brides of goblins) when older sister is negligent in her care. I appreciate that his stories are about fantastical dreams, but they are almost nightmarish especially when accompanied by the beautifully haunting illustrations. These two stories are nestled high on my bookshelf (see earlier post).

Despite my reluctance to introduce Maurice Sendak to my daughters until they are much older, I am hooked! As soon as I returned from Taipei, I went online and ordered all the stories I could find which are written and illustrated by Sendak, and some Caldecott winners for which he provided the illustrations only.