Tots to Teens, StarMag
THE Malaysian release date for Where the Wild Things Are film has been postponed. While we're waiting, here are some more books from Maurice Sendak, for Christmas or just anytime.
Sendak not only illustrated his own stories, but also the work of other writers.
Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories (HarperTrophy, 90 pages, ISBN: 978-0064401470) is a Newbery Honor collection of seven folktales by 1978 Nobel Prize for literature winner, Isaac Bashevis Singer. Originally written in Yiddish, the stories tell of the lives, adventures and (mostly) misadventures of various simple country folk.
A number of the tales are set in the village of Chelm, which is inhabited solely by fools. The village is ruled by the seven Elders - the "oldest and greatest fools" in Chelm. They have long white beards and high foreheads from "thinking too much", and when they consider a problem they have to clutch their beards and cover their foreheads with their hands.
Facing the book's title page is Sendak's illustration of the seven Elders. There they stand, looking totally flummoxed - and who can blame them when they have to deal with difficulties such as four sisters getting their feet mixed up under the bed clothes! (The Mixed-Up Feet and the Silly Bridegroom)
In this book, Sendak's fine pen drawings are highly detailed, with plenty of shading and cross-hatching. The blunt-featured, slightly large-headed figures with their expressive faces are recognisably Sendak's.
