Publications about books for children and young adults
“If this book doesn’t win the Caldecott Medal I’m going to kill myself.” I heard that from Zena Sutherland, quoting Ursula Nordstrom, while Zena and I were at Philadelphia’s Rosenbach Museum in 1982, viewing an exhibition of the complete original art for the book in question, Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. That book [...]
It’s the second Wednesday of the month, and you know what that means! Notes from The Horn Book, our monthly email newsletter, is on its way to inboxes everywhere. This month we have something special: a Maurice Sendak-only edition to remember the great illustrator and celebrate his June 10th birthday. In this issue, Roger talks [...]
In this special issue of Notes from the Horn Book we celebrate the June 10th birthday of Maurice Sendak, who died last month at the age of eighty-three. As well as being a master of illustration, Sendak was a great friend to The Horn Book. While he was best known for his picture books, we [...]
Picture books Where the Wild Things Are (1963) written and illus. by Maurice Sendak, Harper, 3–7 years. In the Night Kitchen (1970) written and illus. by Maurice Sendak, Harper, 3–7 years. Outside Over There (1981) written and illus. by Maurice Sendak, Harper, 3–7 years. Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present (1962) written by Charlotte Zolotow, [...]
Sendak drew and painted to music, and in his later career would design operas including The Magic Flute, The Love for Three Oranges, and his own Where the Wild Things Are, set by Oliver Knussen. The Tony Kushner/Sendak collaboration Brundibar (2003) re-creates the story line of a Czech opera written by a Terezin concentration camp [...]
Sendak never settled for prettiness; his illustrations for folklore demonstrate a respect for the tales’ immense power. The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm (1973), selected by Lore Segal and Maurice Sendak, translated by Segal and Randall Jarrell, and illustrated by Sendak, features Grimm favorites including “Rapunzel,” “Hansel and Gretel,” and “Snow-White and the [...]
It’s a shame that Sendak’s only extended prose work for children is the wonderful Higglety Pigglety Pop, but his tender illustrations for novels by Randall Jarrell and Meindert DeJong demonstrate the artist’s reach beyond the picture book. Sendak’s daring imagination weaves a simple rhyme into the complex and brilliantly original tale Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or, [...]
There’s no need to leave Sendak behind when children begin reading for themselves. Entirely original in approach and content is Ruth Krauss’s A Hole Is to Dig (1952), illustrated by Sendak. In this “first book of first definitions,” Krauss, with the help of children themselves, gives us such gems as “a seashell is to hear [...]
Sendak’s self-styled trilogy about children confronting and mastering fear has inspired much debate and more than a few dissertations, but generations of children have managed all on their own to “only connect” with these three masterpieces. Where the Wild Things Are (1963), Sendak’s best-known work and the 1964 Caldecott Medal Winner, has proved utterly engrossing [...]
Last year, I went to Maurice Sendak’s house to spend a day with the Sendak Fellows, four artists who were given time and studios to work on any project they desired, as well as access to Maurice for advice and encouragement. So who better to talk about his legacy? I asked each Fellow “what’s the [...]
