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Pride Month

 For Pride Month, I'm putting a spotlight on Maurice Sendak.


Sometimes, Sendak seemed weighted down by his own sense of importance; his bitchy colleague, James Marshall, called him "Morose Sendak."


But I think Sendak's early works, "Pierre" and "Chicken Soup with Rice," are really fun. In "Chicken Soup," a deranged child speaks of his fondness for broth. He sips it while gliding on ice-skates. He sips it underwater, with a turtle. He sips it from a robin's nest (a kind of bread bowl, up in the trees).


I have a feeling that Sendak's strange rhymes inspired Sandra Boynton. "In February, it will be my snowman's anniversary....with cake for him and soup for me!" (And think of Boynton: "Look at all the hippos, with a belly button each! Do you wonder where we are? ....It's Belly Button Beach!")


Two thumbs up.









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