I loved Sendak’s books when I was a little kid but, when I rediscovered them as a miserable teenager, I loved them more.  When I unearthed Outside Over There – that angsty, surreal, forlorn, gorgeous book – it was like being struck by lightning.  It walloped teenage me.  It didn’t seem to be a book for kids.  It didn’t seem to be a book for anyone.  It just seemed to be a work of art.  Outside Over There revealed to me the strange power of picture books – what they could do and be, who they could reach – and it kicked off a lifelong obsession with them.

Twenty-some-odd years later, I’ve read a lot of Sendak books.  I study them endlessly with the aim of becoming better at what I do and I read them to my son (who went through his own Outside Over There phase).  When my husband yelled upstairs to say that he had died this morning, I wailed.  I wailed!  And then I sat on the bed and cried.  And I’m actually still crying right now.  I didn’t know I’d be this torn up when he died, but there it is.  I’m unexpectedly, totally bereft.

I won’t get into why I think Maurice Sendak was a genius and why he’s been a guiding light to me for much of my life.  Other people will say it better.  I just want to thank him for making books, for taking them so seriously, for raising the bar impossibly high and for baring his soul in a medium where people seldom do.  Alas, I wish I’d had a chance to do it in person.

from book two

The St. Johns Bizarre is SO MUCH FUN.  As is the St. Johns parade that happens on the same day.  Go!  I’ll see you there.

Did you know that the original printing of Little Fur Family was tiny and bound with rabbit fur?  Margaret Wise Brown, you were such a freak!  Thank you, Jim Carmin, for letting me hold this weird little thing.  It made my day.

Download audio file (02-Puts-Me-to-Work.mp3)