Maurice Sendak - My Favorites

Maurice Sendak, author of wonderful children's books died today - How fitting to say his goodbye during Children's Book Week.  Sendak wrote creative, scary stories with big captivating art which excited and captured imagination of children of all ages. Maurice Sendak's most famous book for which he earned the Caldecott Medal was Where the Wild Things Are.  Published in the 60's, it is still always on the list of top children's books today.

From Where the Wild things Are

But my favorite Maurice Sendak book has always been In the Night Kitchen. This book about a young boy frolicking in the nude with three bakers caused a great deal of laughter during bedtime reading in our house.  It caused some controversy because of the nudity but that didn't keep it from being a big success.

From In the Night Kitchen

My last post featured children's books for Mother's Day - here's an additional one - Mommy? by Sendak.  It was his only pop-up book.

It isn't as well recognized that in his very early career Maurice Sendak was the illustrator of the Little Bear series.

Our thoughts today are with this most talented children's author who took risks and went all out for children's books that were edgy, scary, fun and a whole lot more sophisticated than we frequently give kids credit for  Maurice Sendak didn't only love kids - he respected them.