Hi Ken,
I was so pleased to be reminded of this powerful story. I hadn't thought of
it for years! (Must check my kids' bookcases and see if they still have it.)
A great pity about the librarian. In a way I hope she hadn't read to the
end (with any attention anyway)..that would mean there was some hope for her.
best,
Sue
>Chug-chug, puff-puff, ding-dong-ding-dong:-). Some of those children's
>books are vastly underrated for their understanding of that vague
>entity, Human Nature, if it even exists. I'm in a digressive mood--I
>had to read tons of children's books to my kids, including the one who
>did his Moms Mabley imitation on the phone yesterday. I just recalled
>Maurice Sendak, whose work was perhaps more fun for me to read that it
>was for my kids to hear...and I didn't read them, I acted them out as
>much as possible. _In the Night Kitchen_ and _Where The Wild Things
>Are_ were the obvious choices...the latter especially was a masterpiece
>on the internal consequences of pique and defiance. But my favorite was
>one called _Outside Over There_, which Sendak drew in a series of panels
>evoking Mozartean characters or even, perhaps, Fragonard and Watteau.
>It went over particularly forcefully with my older kid as he struggled
>with his anger at his parents and his younger brother. The young girl
>in the story is left by her sailor father in charge of her baby sister.
>Much resentment. Then trolls steal the baby and substitute and ice
>changeling baby. The older girl behaves like an epic character
>descending into Hell--she goes into the earth where the trolls live and
>takes back her sister. I doubt Sendak intended a Christian allegory,
>but he young girl joins a line that includes Orpheus, Aeneas, Jesus, and
>Dante the ultimate underground traveler...her quest seems to be to
>reconcile her jealousy of her sister with her love for her. Love wins.
>At the end the children sit and listen to their mother playing the
>harpsichord as the older girl reads a letter from her father who is far
>off at sea.
>
>Strange footnote. I didn't own the book, and so went to the library to
>re-borrow it. I got reamed out by the children's librarian. "Why, that
>book is horrible! Sendak's books are horrible! We only have his work
>here because he's won Caldecott medals! The little girl wants her
>sister dead! It's sibling rivalry!" Duh, lady, and for this you had to
>get an advanced degree? Did you read to the end? Were you able to do
>that?....
>
>Ken
>
>--
>Kenneth Wolman
>Proposal Development Department
>Room SW334
>Sarnoff Corporation
>609-734-2538
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