Goodbye, Maurice

Maurice Sendak (1928-2012) died last Tuesday (New York Times obituary here), as you probably heard. He wrote and illustrated possibly the most beloved children's book Where the Wild Things Are (HarperCollins, 1971), but was unapologetic about not writing a sequel on the wave of the book's success. You may have sailed  "in and out of weeks" with Max, but it would have been harder to float through the kitchen with Mickey, because the sight of him - sans jammies - outraged some people. Parents bypassed it and libraries banned it. Stacy Conradt writes on Mental Floss, "...it was his later book, In the Night Kitchen, that landed on the American Library Association’s frequently challenged and banned books list. It features a little boy named Mickey, who is nude throughout most of the story, likely because he’s dreaming. 'Have you never had a dream, yourself, where you were totally naked?' he said, when Stephen Colbert asked him about the nudity. (Colbert: 'No.' Sendak: 'I think you’re a man of little imagination' (see entire interview here)." The offending image can be seen here (caution - just kidding!).

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See my previous posts about children's book 

author/illustrator

 Remy Charlip

 Dr. Seuss

More follow-ups

Shackleton 10/28/09 Kind words from reader Priscilla: "Again Christine has landed on one of my favorite subjects. Shackleton. I studied his journey to learn more about what a good leader does, and it is full of many examples that are relevant today. Even years later, his crew would refer to him as "Boss." One of his great talents was the ability to recognize talent in others and rely on it. Thanks, Christine!"

Gingko 10/25/09 My readers have fond memories of gingko trees. Priscilla says, "The legend is that gingkos would be extinct except they were preserved in captivity by Chinese monks because they are thought to be fireproof, thus safe next to precious wooden temples and monasteries. I miss the gingko my mother had in her garden, slender and brilliant." And Lisa writes, "When I lived in Brooklyn we had gingko trees all along my block and when the pods fell I would see little old Chinese women collecting them....I miss those gingko trees."

Winks and blinks 10/21/09 Follower Kent Schnake had comments on this: "I really enjoyed your post. It happens that I have seen all three of the movies you mentioned. I was really intrigued by Metropolis. I find that sometimes I underestimate old films simply because the technology was so limited. However, I thought that Metropolis was able to transcend those limitations and really engage me. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was both heart breaking and inspirational. The scene where his eye is sewn shut has to rank right up there among the all time gut churners." New reader Jason told me that it reminded him of the interesting blinking in a video by the band Grizzly Bear.

Glasswing butterflies 10/13/09 Biologists at the University of Bristol in Ontario have discovered an ear structure in tropical butterflies that enhances their hearing while in flight.

Anne Frank 10/7/09 Seattle has received a sapling grown from the tree that Anne Frank could see from the window of her hiding place.

Where the Wild Things Are 9/30/09 Maurice Sendak dismisses parents who think that the movie will - like the book it is based on - be inappropriate for children.

Jaws in 1916 8/6/09 This 10' great white shark caught off Queensland, Australia, was bitten nearly in half by another great white estimated to be twice as long.

Pangolins 7/20/09 The BBC has been faulted by conservationists for the preparation of a critically endangered species of eel on its show "Master Chef: The Professionals."

Birds! 5/21/09 Compare this foiled snake and lizard smuggler to the one pictured at the bottom of this post trying to smuggle birds.

Green eggs and ham 5/11/09 The latest British fad in pets is to own 9-oz. teacup pigs, which sell for more than $1,000 each. And 2 ducklings hatched out of a single egg at a Cornish duck farm.

Chihuahuas in the weird news 5/2/09 A Bulgarian man tried to smuggle a chihuahua into Dublin in his carry-on bag, but it was discovered when it was passed through the airport x-ray machine.

Bears in the news 4/24/09 A couple in Colorado responded to their car alarm to find that - instead of a thief breaking in - a bear was trapped inside (photo above) and trying frantically to get out!

Toads encased in stone 3/23/09 The burrowing frog can lay dormant without food or water for several years.

Footprints 2/28/09 Paleontologists have discovered the tiniest dinosaur footprints yet, in Seoul, South Korea. Archaeologists have uncovered footprints of the artisans who created a mosaic 1,700 years ago in Lod, Israel.

Preserved in amber 2/24/09 In October, scientists announced the discovery of a family, genus, and species of fly that had never been observed; the "unicorn fly" was preserved in amber.

Disturbing decapitations 1/23/09 A Canadian judge ruled this Spring that the man who decapitated a fellow Greyhound bus passenger in July 2008 is not criminally responsible for the crime due to mental illness.

Ancient animals 1/19/09 The eggs of 82 endangered green sea turtles have hatched at Sea World in San Diego, California, and are expected to have a lifespan of 100+ years.

Hedgehogs 1/8/09 Security guards kept 24-hour watch to be sure no hedgehogs wandered into the bonfire at a fireworks display in Malvern, Worcestershire in the U.K. A hedgehog drunk on fermented apples was taken to the Prickly Ball Hedgehog Hospital in Newton Abbot, Devon.

Nutshell studies of unexplained death 12/21/08 Reader Whitney suggested I might be interested in the art installation Knitted Homes of Crime by Freddie Robins.

Space chimp 12/5/09 More than a dozen chimps gathered to watch the burial of one of their fellow chimps at a rescue center in West Africa.

Oldest zoo in the world 11/12/08 Israel's top zoo has become the number one exporter of hippopotami in the world.

Elephants 10/30/08 PETA has launched a protest of the "elephant car wash" attraction at an Oregon wildlife park.

Where the Wild Things Are

Mark your calendar for October 16th if you were and are enchanted by the children's book Where the Wild Things Are. That is the release date of a live-action feature-length motion picture that has been made from the classic 1963 picture book. The trailer promises a rich treat adapted from Maurice Sendak's 10 lines of text and beautiful illustrations. Sendak, now 81, co-produced the film, directed by Spike Jonze. Of the dozens of children's books Sendak wrote and/or illustrated, Where the Wild Things Are remains the most popular and is now regarded as a masterpiece, although it was controversial when published for catering to the "nightmarish" aspects of childhood fantasy. Another of his books, In the Night Kitchen, is still challenged for its illustrative depiction of the young protagonist Mickey in the nude (gasp), rather than its admitted reference - by way of cooks with Hitleresque mustaches trying to cook the boy in their ovens - to the Holocaust. Wild Things won a Caldecott Medal, an award named in honor of English illustrator Randolph Caldecott (1846-1886), who died and was buried during a holiday here in Florida. Regarding the film, as Max and this blogger say, "Let the wild rumpus begin!"