"New" From Maurice Sendak

Maurice Sendak's posthumous book is about a little boy, Mino, who puts on a magic show. He summons rabbits from his hat. Eventually, the chaos becomes problematic, and Mino sends the rabbits back to the Netherworld--and that's the end of the story.

One of Sendak's gifts is his belief in a fantasy land; reality bleeds into a dream. The nameless speaker in "Chicken Soup" becomes a bauble on a Christmas tree--and, at other times, he sips hot soup while sitting on the ocean floor. Max in "Wild Things" can simply remove the roof of his house to gain access to a mystical ocean. Mino makes rabbits from thin air.

"Ten Little Rabbits" looks easy; there is so little text. But it takes time to make an illusion of effortlessness. I especially like the child-sized tuxedo that Sendak has invented--for Mino.

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