Maurice Sendak invented monsters, in every sense of the word. It's easy to look at Where The Wild Things Are and instantly point out the creatures on the island as the monsters of the piece, but how many would also say the same about Max? Maurice Sendak didn't like 'good boys', he preferred to show children as they actually were, sometimes sweet and innocent, sometimes as mischievous and frightening as the beasts of the story themselves.
Sadly, Maurice Sendak passed away in May 2012 due to complications from a stroke. The provider of dreams (and occasional nightmares) for children everywhere Maurice never had children himself, though that never stopped him understanding kids, perhaps better than many children understand themselves. "I am trying to draw the way children feel" he once told the New Yorker, as if the perception of childhood was less relevant than magic of it, the feeling that as a child anything can and – if you use your imagination – eventually will happen.
Sendak was extremely personable and did his utmost to interact with every letter received from a child, he admitted that sometimes he answered hastily but in this day and age where celebrities and public figures often only interact to chosen tweets a hastily written response would be impressive. His favourite letter ever received was actually from a parent though: "[A little boy] sent me a charming card with a little drawing. I loved it… I sent him a postcard and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, 'Dear Jim, I loved your card.' Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, 'Jim loved your card so much he ate it.' That to me was one of the highest compliments I've ever received. He didn't care that it was an original drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it."
That to me sums up the beauty of what Maurice wanted to capture, the way children see the world in a very different manner. They don't see a one-off drawing, they see food. They don't see a fight, they see a Wild Rumpus. They don't see a wolf costume, they see the ability to become a wolf. I don't know the age imagination declines, but I have a theory that it may just be the age at which you stop reading Where The Wild Things Are and move onto something a bit 'older'.
So what are you waiting for? Why grow up? Let the wild rumpus begin!
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