RJ Blog

As someone who grew up reading Little Golden Books in which mommies and daddies take care of their obedient children, I love how Maurice Sendak’s stories, by contrast, dive right into the fray of real life—warts and all.  As a librarian, I also appreciate what a pioneer Sendak was and how his stories and illustrations broke barriers in children’s literature.  I love the edgy realness of his characters—and especially relate to bratty Pierre of I-don’t-care fame who reminds me of my young self answering my own mother.  Sendak’s kids are not gift wrapped with pretty paper or shiny bows.  Like [...]

By all accounts, Maurice Sendak was an unlikely hero. While his colleagues in the world of children’s literature were creating Disney princesses, romanticizing gender stereotypes that would perpetuate anti-feminism in mainstream culture for decades to come, Sendak was exploring the darker side of the imagination.