Foresight of my 10 days away from Conor motivated me to drag out the video camera and the tripod and read some of Conor's favorite stories before I left for Stockholm on business. This one is called Holler Loudly and I love hearing my son try to say, "Loudly". I called my wife to see how the two of them were doing and she said that Conor had started to ask about me on a regular basis so she played these videos on the TV and he calmed down and settled into half a dozen videos that I have stored in the section called, "The Reading Corner."
The Brothers Grimm Fairytales are a collection of tales for children and adults meant to teach life lessons. These stories are often dark and grim and hardly acceptable anymore. In fact, my wife had me take out all the colorful parts of the tale as I created a tale with my son Conor and his cousin Laoise. The following tale is a neutered version of Hansel and Gretel.
If you don't know his name, you know his book, "Where the Wild Things Are." When asked where he got the idea for the monsters in his book, he replied, "they're my aunts and uncles. They're all monsters." Sendak wrote his book in 1961 and the following year the American Library Association awarded him the prestigious Caldicott Medal for his illustrations in the book. Other children's gems that Sendak authored are, "In the Night Kitchen" in 1970 and "Outside Over There" in 1981.
His latest book was written in 2007 while he cared for his cancer-strickened partner, Eugene Glynn. He has been quoted as saying, "I have nothing now but praise for my life. I'm not unhappy. I cry a lot because i miss people. They die and I cannot stop them. They leave me and I love them more." The queen of Sweden has presented Maurice Sendak with the Hans Christian Anderson Award for his illustrations and Bill Clinton awarded Sendak the National Medal of Arts back in 1996.
"Where the Wild Things Are" was my brother's favorite book growing up and so Maurice has a special place in my heart for this simple connection. Rest in peace where the Wild Things Are, Mr. Sendak.