Summary

Born in 1928, Maurice Sendak was a sickly child who passed the time by sketching the children who were able to play in the street below his window. Sendak excelled in art during high school and found a job decorating store windows. When a book editor discovered his talent, Sendak’s skill was much in demand as a storybook illustrator. Once he started writing books as well as illustrating them, Sendak’s stories allowed children to experience places and journeys not often found in other books, including a magic land in Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen’s noisy adventure, and a land in Outside Over There where a young girl must save her baby sister from goblins. Sendak continued to write and illustrate stories throughout his life, finding ways to introduce socially important themes to young readers. In a one-volume reference, Maurice Sendak details the life and real-life influences of this famous author, revealing the person behind the words, and the author behind the literature we love.

Specifications

Full-color photographs. Chronology. Bibliography. Further reading. Box features. Web sites. Index.

About the Author(s)

Hal Marcovitz is a journalist and the author of Painting the White House, as well as more than 60 nonfiction books for young readers. His other titles in the Who Wrote That? series include Will Hobbs, R.L. Stine, and Bruce Coville. He lives in Chalfont, PA.

Foreword by Kyle Zimmer, president of First Book