Learn from the greats: Maurice Sendak

Oh hi there! I’ve got some great kid table vibes for you. You ready? The forecast for this week is — holds finger in the air to check the currents— FROLICKING I’m trying to get to know my new home and my favorite way to do that is to frolic through the magical trees. On Monday, we visited Scenic Beach State Park since it was free for the holiday. You can see the water peeking out from behind us. NEW HATS In a previous newsletter, I mentioned that when we moved in, we found a cow waiting for us. She wasn’t our style but we couldn’t let her go. She blesses us with cowbells as we walk through the door. We’ve now updated her hat, and I think she looks great. The big green button wishes it could wear hats but it doesn’t have the face for it. A WILD RUMPUS Aaron and I have never been DIYers but we didn’t let that stop us from demolishing our closet with a hammer. The shelves were saggy and the space was poorly designed…so we absolutely destroyed it (muahaha!). Then we filled in the holes with putty, painted over everything, and installed metal racks. If I had been smart, I would have taken a before and after photo. But I took two “during” photos and hopefully that is good enough (if not, you can have your people call my people). CRYING IN FRONT OF PEOPLE I’ve been feeling sad lately for many reasons, and sometimes I have the tendency to keep anything but happiness to myself. But luckily some amazing people in my life have offered a safe space for me to feel all the feelings. Occasionally being a blubbering mess is an important staple of the kid table. THE AGONY OF WAITING FOR SOMETHING YOU ARE EXCITED ABOUT I’m about to receive an updated PDF of my debut picture book HOW TO PEE YOUR PANTS (THE RIGHT WAY) which will include the jacket cover, case cover, and interiors with text. And, when it all gets approved, I’ll get to share the cover with you!!! READING FOR FUN I got rid of my goodreads account (except for the new one I created to leave reviews for friends’ books). I am not tracking my reading anymore, and I’m loving it. Here are some recs: * The Story of Gumlock the Wizard by Adam Rex * Eerie Tales from the School of Screams by Graham Annable * The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels by Beth Lincoln And some wonderful picture books I’ve read that I recommend preordering now: * The Blue Pickup by Natasha Tripplett and Monica Mikai * At the End of the Day by Lisl H. Detlefsen and Lynnor Bontigao * Bao’s Doll by Bo’s Substack * Spider in the Well by Jess Hannigan What kid table vibes are you loving in your corner of the world? This week, I’m sitting at the kid table with… …children’s book author-illustrator Maurice Sendak! You probably know him for his beloved Caldecott award winning book Where the Wild Things Are. But you might not know that he was obsessed with death (to the point his friends teased him about it), he hated book signings, he had a reputation for being a lovable curmudgeon, and he was Stephen Colbert’s favorite interview of all time. So let’s get to know him a little more, shall we? Note: You can listen to this as a podcast episode or read it below. Learning from the great Maurice Sendak: Part One Part one will include an overview of his life with a focus on the things that influenced his work. Part two (next week) will include the eight things I learned from him about the creative process, making books, and life in general. Here we go! I love Maurice Sendak because… Where the Wild Things Are has always been a huge inspiration for me. As a kid growing up in an unsafe emotional environment, he gave me a safe space to express myself. My wildness. My anger. All while knowing that someone was waiting for me at home with dinner “and it was still hot” — a gift of love and true acceptance from the story to me. He took emotional risks. I decided to do this deep dive research because I wanted to understand what inspired Sendak to take such emotional risks on the page at a time when there weren’t many books representing imperfect moms and angry kids. My research led me to discover many things that informed his work including a difficult childhood, an obsession with death, and a commitment to tell the truth to kids. He advocated for children. In his own curmudgeonly way, he was a fierce advocate for children as whole people with complicated, intense emotional experiences. I felt that respect as a kid when I read his books. And I hope to offer that respect now as I make books for kids. WHO IS MAURICE SENDAK? CHILDHOOD “It was the awareness at a very early age of mortality which pervaded my soul and provided me with the basic ingredients of being an artist.” Maurice Sendak was born June 10, 1928 in Brooklyn, New York. He was named after the doctor who helped his mom when he was born. His family called him Murray. His parents were Jewish-Polish immigrants who were working to bring their families over. His father was a tailor which later influenced Sendak to design costumes. Overall he had a difficult relationship with his parents: “There was no art to child life in my family. They couldn’t figure out life at all. My mom shouldn’t have had children. She didn’t care for children.” Sendak’s father described him as a happy baby, coming out “almost laughing…like a little bell.” Sendak later said, “What a start. What a good beginning. What a hopeful sign that was. What did they do? Break the bell?” Despite his difficult relationship with his parents, he loved his sister and brother and called them his chosen parents. They gave him books and enriched his life with creativity including dynamic wooden toys they made together (which Sendak had in his studio). Creativity helped him survive. Being sick all the time led to a love of observing, drawing, and telling stories. As a child, Sendak was often sick and spent most time indoors, observing other children’s lives through the window. This later influenced his books which were full of windows and movie-like frames. He also spent a lot of time reading comics and drawing and he especially loved Mickey Mouse. He wanted to become an artist after seeing Fantasia; animation was a huge inspiration for him throughout his life. Confronting fear and death at an early age gave him a deep respect for children. Self-described as a “rigid kid,” he was often in a state of fear and anxiety. When he started attending school, he found it uncomfortable: “Nearly every morning, in order to get there, I had to talk myself out of a state of panic…I couldn’t stand being cloistered with other children, and I was usually so embarrassed that I stammered.” He was scared of his mom’s Hoover vacuum cleaner to the point that he had to go to the neighbor’s house when it was in use. He also watched Invisible Man which, according to him, made him an insomniac for the rest of his life as no one could prove the invisible man wasn’t lurking. But what scared him more than anything was death. Sendak was forced to confront mortality at a very young age. * His father told him he was an “accident baby” and that they had tried to abort him using toxic things because they couldn’t afford him. * When he got sick, his parents often expressed that he could die: "I think a lot of children are afraid of death. But I was afraid because I heard it around me. I was very ill; I had scarlet fever…my parents were afraid I wouldn't survive." * He became obsessed with the Lindbergh baby kidnapping after seeing a graphic newspaper image at age two. He realized bad things could happen to anyone and said, “It invested me in children forever.” This experience eventually influenced his book Outside Over There. * As his parents saved money, they were able to bring over most of Sendak’s mom’s family out of Europe, but by the time they started trying to help his dad’s, it was impossible to get his Jewish family out of Europe. The entire extended family was tragically killed in the concentration camps. Because of this, Sendak’s parents carried a lot of guilt, and Sendak explains that, in not knowing how … This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rachelmichellewilson.substack.com