14 Comments

I love his perspective of kids on whole beings.

Thanks for sharing this deep dive!

PS: I especially love the part about where the wild things are! - The insight for me as a creator is that is that the story about the book is really important especially in important books!

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Oh so glad to hear that! And yes, I am totally a nerd for the story behind the story. If you are into his other books like outside over there, in the night kitchen, a hole is to dig, etc. you might like the bonus materials I posted on my blog! I found a ton of fun facts about his books and compiled them 😊

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Substack is suddenly filling up with fun picture book people! Awesome!

I luv anything with Sendak in it... I’m a long time Sendak fan & I even got to take one of his classes at the Parsons School of Design. I adore his earlier books especially... and I was amazed when Maurice brought in the finished pencil dummies to ‘Outside Over There’. It was so detailed. I blogged about meeting Maurice - http://johnnez.blogspot.com/2007/03/this-was-it-do-or-die-5.html

I’m also a PNW person... so congrats on the house! I live in Seattle, near the UW, in Bryant. I only spent 5 years in New York, to start freelancing, then moved back to Seattle.

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Yes, so cool — I’m loving the community!

Oh. My. Goodness. That is amazing — I’ll dive into your blog post right away.

Thanks so much! We are loving it here — and we live in silverdale an hour west of you. What’s the kidlit community like here? So far, I think everyone is hibernating for the winter haha but I hope to meet more people here this year 😊

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Just read your post and loved it — I love his insights and his whole “get over it” comment. What a cool experience. Thanks for sharing!

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The kidlit group in Seattle & nearby is kind of huge... but since covid, the real live meetings at Western Washington Scbwi aren't quite as well attended. But many, many kidlit people live here. During the 5 years that I worked in New York, I didn't even know the SCBWI existed... funny.

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Oh how interesting about NY versus Seattle — I’ll have to make sure to stay up to date on scbwi!

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DYING TO SEE THE COVER!!!

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I hope it doesn't disappoint!!! There is something so scary about a debut haha

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Great post! I’m a Sendak fan & scholar as well -- see my own post here: https://open.substack.com/pub/kenpriebe/p/a-decade-of-studying-sendak

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Thank you, Ken! That means a lot coming from someone who is such a great fan and scholar of him -- I did a deep dive into your amazing articles. So good. I also love the book recommendations on your substack (and that "I'm Kenough" shirt is amazing) -- immediate subscribe for me. Hope your 2024 is off to a great start!

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Awesome, thanks so much!

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If I could eat this, I would! Glad to have you back (not glad about all those sad tears though). Can't wait to see your cover reveal - and loved hearing your voice! This year is gonna be big for you!

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Haha the perfect Sendak comment — thank you so much! I’m glad you’ve gotten a well-deserved break (especially since moving takes everything! It’s kicked my butt) and I’m also excited for the amazing things you and moonbow have in store for 2024 (rhyme!)

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