Maurice Sendak

Maurice Sendak (1928–2012) was an American author and illustrator of children’s books. His best-known book, Where the Wild Things Are, joined a child’s fantasy with emotionally complex illustration.

Where the Wild Things Are: A 1963 picture book by Maurice Sendak about Max, a boy who sails to an island inhabited by wild creatures. Sendak’s best-known book turns a child’s anger into a journey through fantasy.
Picture book: A book in which images and words jointly tell a story, with pictures carrying essential narrative information. Sendak treated the page and sequence of images as part of the storytelling.
Brooklyn: A borough of New York City where Maurice Sendak was born and grew up. His family life in Brooklyn informed the domestic settings of many books.
Ruth Krauss: An American writer of children’s books who collaborated with Maurice Sendak on several titles. Their books paired Krauss’s text with Sendak’s early illustrations.
Children's literature: Literature written for children, encompassing picture books, novels, poetry, and other forms. Sendak helped broaden its emotional range and its visual ambitions.
In the Night Kitchen: A 1970 picture book by Maurice Sendak about a boy who enters a surreal night kitchen. Its dreamlike cityscape and childhood anxieties reveal another side of Sendak’s visual storytelling.
Visual narrative: Storytelling through images arranged in a sequence, with or without accompanying words. His illustrations often advance action and mood beyond the written text.
Polish-Jewish immigrants: People who emigrated from Poland to other countries and maintained or inherited Polish Jewish cultural traditions. Sendak’s parents were Polish Jewish immigrants whose family stories shaped his early imagination.
Ursula Nordstrom: An American children’s-book editor who led Harper’s Department of Books for Boys and Girls from 1940 to 1973. Nordstrom championed Sendak’s work and encouraged emotionally honest books for children.
Caldecott Medal: An annual American award recognizing the artist of the most distinguished picture book for children published in the United States. Where the Wild Things Are received the medal in 1964.

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