The illustration from Charlotte Zolotow's Mr Rabbit and the Lovely Present is by Maurice Sendak
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My First Encounter
I read Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are to my children many years ago, I was unaware that many academics, librarians, and psychologists had initially considered it too dangerous and frightening for children. My four children, rather than finding it frightening, were very taken by the book and asked me to read it again. They were also fans of the Little Bear Series (Else Helmelund Minarik), illustrated by Sendak.
This was before I was aware of Where the Wild Things Are receiving the Caldecott Award. Over the years the book has won prizes, been reinterpreted for theater and film, and sold over 19 million copies.
Sendak's (1928-2012) lifelong connection to the world of children permeated his wonderful creativity and versatility over the years. His remarkable work as an author, illustrator, and designer continued until his death, at 82, in 2012.
The illustration from Where the Wild Things Are is by Muarice Sendak
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The Brink Between Dreams, Imagination, and Reality
"Maurice Sendak... was one of the few – and rare – writers who truly wrote for children. Not to entertain their parents, or to improve their social skills – he told the stories that children live themselves, wobbling on the uncomfortable brink between dreams, imagination and reality, where truth is whatever can be remembered, whether it really happened or not...
Although Sendak's work can seem dark, and a little unsettling (my favourite of his illustrations is skinny, sinister Mr Rabbit, from Charlotte Zolotow's book – surely an influence on Donnie Darko), the freedom that he allows his children to be scared, to be wild, to be naughty, to be unlikeable, and yet still to be loved – will always be a comfort."
Excerpted from a commemorative article in the Guardian by Morvin Crumlish
The illustration from Charlotte Zolotow's Mr Rabbit and the Wonderful Present is by Maurice Sendak.
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An Early (1966) Video Visit with Maurice Sendak
Maurice Sendak, sitting in his New York City studio apartment, shares his thoughts on influences ranging from composers to painters and illustrators from the past. He talks about his childhood, and shows fascinating animated toys he made his brother on fairytale themes. The video was made following his winning the Caldecott Award for Where the Wild Things Are.
Here is the link: Caldecott.
The illustration from Where the Wild Things Are is by Maurice Sendak.
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Dear Mili -- A Grimm Tale Discovered in 1983, Illustrated by Sendak
Maurice Sendak was deeply moved by this story and saw parallels with the fate of many of his Jewish Polish relatives during World War Two. He knew of these events through the stories he heard as a child from his immigrant parents.
"Preserved in a letter written to a young girl, Mili, in 1816 (by Wilheim Grimm) and not discovered until 1983, the Grimm story is prefaced by a tender address in which he underscores the story's message: although there are many obstacles that can prevent people from being together, `one human heart can go out to another, undeterred by what lies between.' The story that follows implies that love transcends even death. Like many fairy tales, this one deals with extraordinary events. A widow sends her child into the forest to protect her from an approaching war...The volume may have more appeal for adults than for children, but nonetheless it contains unforgettable artwork of resonant power."
Excerpted from a PW (Publishers Weekly) Review
The illustration from Dear Mili is by Maurice Sendak...
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They Want to Survive
"I have always had a deep respect for children and how they solve complex problems by themselves...through shrewdness, fantasy, and just plain strength -- they want to survive, they want to survive." -- Maurice Sendak
From a PBS blank on blank animated interview with Sendak
The illustration from Charlotte Zolotow's Mr Rabbit and the Wonderful Present is by Maurice Sendak.
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The Sendak Legacy Lives On In Media
Sendak is remarkably open and candid in these fascinating interviews..."Tell the truth as best you can, the people who need the truth the most are children..."
TV Interview 1993 with Charlie Rose.
TV interview on PBS with Bill Moyers,
Here is a link to read a fascinating interview by author Cynthia Zaren in the New Yorker with Sendak prior to and during the revival production of Brundibar (2006). Brundibar was originally performed by Jewish children in the Czech Theresitienstadt concentration camp during World War Two. Tony Kushner wrote the libretto for the US revival.
Here is a link to a You Tube trailer for a 2009 film version of Where the Wild Things Are ,directed by Spike Jonz. Worth a look if you like Sendak.
You Tube has many Sendak related videos, an indication of his talent, diversity, and ability to connect with readers through his work.
The illustration by Sendak is from The little Bear Series by Else Holmelund Minirak.
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Understanding and Empathy
Charlotte Zolotow, author of the classic Mr. Rabbit and the Wonderful Present, wrote over 90 books for children -- a staggering figure -- and edited hundreds more at Harper and Row. Like Sendak, she had a nerdy, difficult childhood and a difficult mother. She is regarded as having great understanding and empathy for children. These qualities are reflected in her books. Zolotow was a devoted mother to two children, and lived to be 98.
Here is a video link to an insightful appreciation of Charlotte Zolotow, focused on the diverse universe of books she created. The presentation was made by librarian Megan Schliesman on the occasion of the Charlotte Zolotow Award for best children's picture book to Jacqueline Woodson in 2013.
Here is a link to read more about this fascinating woman: Charlotte Zolotow
The illustration from Charlotte Zolotow's Sleepy Book (1958) is by Vladamir Bobri.
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The Seashore Book by Charlotte Zolotow
"Let's pretend," she said. "It is early morning at the seashore, and its hard to tell where the sea stops and the sky begins."
These are the words of a caring mother as she shares memories and evokes the experience of the seashore for her young son -- who has never seen the sea. The mother's caring voice is also the voice of this evocative book that tells of how the seashore looks and feels, impressions of nature, the sand and the sea. This is a voice that understands the world of children. Wendell Minor's illustrations are in perfect harmony with Zolotow's words, creating a warm, symbiotic relationship.
I read The Seashore Book in a lovely 25th anniversary edition, reissued and redesigned by Charlesbridge.
I will be giving The Seashore Book to my youngest grandchildren who live near the sea and who will see a world they well know lovingly brought to life in a book.
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Here is a link for dog lovers...Prescription Dog
How Much Do Dogs Understand
C.A. Wulff is a dog advocate and author who lives in a house in the woods with 5 adopted dogs. Her books range from a memoir (Circling the Waggins) about adopting and living with the surprises and affection of dogs and other critters, to a step by step book on preventing dog loss (Finding Fido), and what one can do to recover a lost dog. The following was excerpted from her Up On The Woof Blog.
"Over twenty years ago I came across this Far Side cartoon by Gary Larson. Although I often joke in this vein that our dog, Rocket Boy, only understands his name and the word Chew-eez, the truth is that dogs understand far more than that...Stanley Coren, author and former professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, writes about Dog-Human communication in his book How to Speak Dog. Coren states that the average dog knows between 200 and 300 words. That puts a dog’s language comprehension on par with a 2-1/2 – 3 yr. old child. An extra intelligent dog may even know more words than that, and one dog trainer has reported that his dog knows as many as 350 words...
Here is a link to read more of Wulff's article: Up On The Woof
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Castle In The Mist is the second book in the Planet Of The Dogs Series
"The second book, Castle in the Mist, picks up where the first left off in regards to character development and introduces a whole new land and cast of characters (a la Harry Potter). In this one, the past-violent-cum-peaceful Bik of Stone City has his two young children kidnapped by a Prince who doesn't understand peace or dogs or anything really and the dogs, along with the humans, work out a plan to save the children...
While reading these, I kept wishing I was reading them out loud to a couple of kids instead. I could imagine each night reading another chapter and the kids waiting with bated breath for what would happen next." -- Excerpt from a review by Karen Boss
The illustration from Castle In The Mist is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty
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Books Were the Most Loving and Trustworthy Things in My Life
"As a child, I read because books–violent and not, blasphemous and not, terrifying and not–were the most loving and trustworthy things in my life. I read widely, and loved plenty of the classics so, yes, I recognized the domestic terrors faced by Louisa May Alcott’s March sisters. But I became the kid chased by werewolves, vampires, and evil clowns in Stephen King’s books. I read books about monsters and monstrous things, often written with monstrous language, because they taught me how to battle the real monsters in my life..."
Excerpted from Sherman Alexie in WSJ .
The art is by Ellen Forney
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THE WESTCOUNTRY SCHOOL OF MYTH ...immersion into myth, wilderness and soul.
In the words of the School..."This learning community on Dartmoor in the far west of the United Kingdom, believes that myth has something vital to say about the condition of both our lives and the earth. That certain stories we need right now arrived, perfectly on time, about five thousand years ago.
Central to this is the notion that culture and wildness have experienced an artificial separation, and that both initiation and myth can create what Shaw calls a Culture of Wildness. It is such a culture that the school and its scholars endeavour to raise up."
Discovered courtesy of Terri Windling's exceptional Myth and Moor . Here is a link to the Westcountry School of Myth
The photo of Dartmoor, West Devon, is by David Gibbeson
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Music Fills The Sky
"Some people talk and talk
and never say a thing.
Some people look at you
and birds begin to sing.
Some people laugh and laugh
and yet you want to cry.
Some people touch your hand
and music fills the sky."
From Charlotte Zolotow's All That Sunlight (1967)
The illustration by Maurice Zendak is from Charlotte Zolotow's Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present
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Oxfam Brings Hope to Refugees
One person in three in the world lives in poverty...
Famine and disease threaten the lives -- at this very moment -- of millions of children from Syria to Yemen.
This is a crisis we cannot ignore. Worsening hunger and the spread of famine are imminent, but not yet inevitable.
We can stop the worst from happening and prevent a catastrophic loss of life if we act now.
Help save lives by supporting Oxfam’s work and providing emergency aid to those who need it most.
Here is a link to the Oxfam humanitarian website.
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A Story Like The Wind
I learned on the kid lit site Achuka about a book to be released May 4 that promises to be a very special children's fiction story about the refugee crisis: A Story Like The Wind, by Gill Lewis, illustrated by Jo Weaver.
Oxford University Press (OUP) Children’s has acquired the book; Nicky Parker, publisher at Amnesty International UK, said the book “celebrates our common humanity and upholds the human rights values of love, friendship, kindness, home, family, culture and safety”.
" A moving and surprising tale about an unlikely storytelling session that takes place on a dinghy of refugees after the boat’s engine has, near literally, given up the ghost...Lewis writes a powerful story, an intelligent conversation between myth and crude reality that wakes you up with a cold splash, but avoids mawkishness and pity -- Excerpt from a review by Alex O'Connell in the Times of London.
The cover design is by Jo Weaver.
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Movies
Your Name...a movie about becoming someone else
I haven't seen this Ghibli film but Manhola Dargas thought it to be terrific. Here is an excerpt from her review.
"It isn’t until well into “Your Name,” a wistfully lovely Japanese tale about fate and time, that its two teenage characters meet. By that point, Mitsuha (a girl yearning to leave her small town) and Taki (a boy in Tokyo) have come to know each other as well as two people can. For reasons they don’t understand, each’s consciousness has been temporarily jumping into the other’s physical shell, only to jump back. This happens at night, which means that Mitsuha regularly wakes up in Taki’s body, and he wakes up in hers, a swap that he likes to confirm by fondling his (her) breasts.
...By the time these two (and you) have figured out what’s happening, and why, Mr. Shinkai has set another change in motion, and “Your Name” has shifted from a comedy of confusion into a deeply moving meditation on nation, history, catastrophe and memory. It’s a touching, soaring switcheroo, one that Mr. Shinkai achieves with help from Masayoshi Tanaka, who did the character design, and Masashi Ando, the animation director and a veteran of Studio Ghibli. " Your Name is popular world wide with box office sales approaching 354 million.
Here is a link to the full Review by Manohla Dargas
Here is the trailer for Your Name
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Colossal...a Variation on Beauty and the Beast/the BF Giant/ and Robotic Mayhem
"The fantasy of “Colossal,” Nacho Vigalondo’s new genre mashup, starring Anne Hathaway, does two things well at the same time: it embodies a strong idea and it delivers aesthetic pleasure...it revels in the power of cinematic artifice to tell a story that confronts big questions about real life..."Colossal” reaches that level only intermittently, but it’s rare for any filmmaker to achieve it at all; it’s also a conceptual achievement that makes its very description a pack of spoilers"...Here's a link to the full review in the New Yorker: Richard Brody
Here is a link to an entertaining trailer that will make things clearer: Colossal
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The Boss Baby
The Boss Baby is a huge worldwide box office success...more than $365 million. I haven't seen it, the critics were not enthralled, but the audiences keep coming.
The movie was produced by Dreamworks Animation and is loosely based on a 2010 picture book by Marla Frazee.
Here is a link to the trailer for Boss Baby
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NRA Fairytales...(get the kids a gun, Bubba)
Illustration by Stanfill
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"The “KidLitosphere” is a community of reviewers, librarians, teachers, authors, illustrators, publishers, parents, and other book enthusiasts who blog about children’s and young adult literature. In writing about books for children and teens, we’ve connected with others who share our love of books. With this website, we hope to spread the wealth of our reading and writing experience more broadly."
The illustration from Alice in Wonderland is by John Tenniel.
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The Yelodoggie Search
Why Am I is a joyous Yelodoggie book that helps children recognize and appreciate differences and to embrace that which is unique in each of us.
We believe that Why Am I, C.A. Wulff's wonderful new Yelodoggie book should have a big marketing push and wide distribution. Kids 4-8 love it and we are hoping it will be the beginning of a series. We are now searching for a publisher who will also love the book, embrace its potential, and launch it into the world.
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The Planet Of The Dogs Series
To read sample chapters of any book in the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs
The Planet Of The Dogs series (including Castle In The Mist and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale) is available on the Internet through independent bookstores, including: Barnes&Noble, Amazon, Powell's, Walmart, Kobo, Inktera, Scribd, and Tolino.
"A cat, after being scolded, goes about its business. A dog slinks off into a corner and pretends to be doing a serious self-reappraisal" -- Robert Brault
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