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On Picture Books

 Before Mac Barnett “fell from grace,” he wrote a blog called “Looking at Picture Books.” This did exactly what it claimed to do. Barnett and his friend, Jon Klassen, analyzed old masterworks. They weren’t afraid to touch a nerve; they criticized Barack Obama for repeatedly reading “Where the Wild Things Are” at high-profile events (when other books could have profited from the Obama spotlight).


Barnett really, deeply thought about Maurice Sendak. For example, he pointed out that Max, the hero of “Where the Wild Things Are,” doesn’t have any toys. His bedroom is joyless. It’s a bedroom designed by a parent who is struggling. (Indeed, the parent has just sent Max to sleep without having eaten dinner.)


Second, Barnett pays attention to Sendak’s use of scale. The initial images are small; we see a good deal of white space. When Max escapes to the land of the Wild Things, the white space disappears. The image even seems to spill *off* the page. Max has found freedom within his imagination; his world is less constrained.


Finally, there is the mysterious ending. We might assume that Max has traveled only in his dream—but, then, the change in the moon suggests that real time has elapsed. Sendak doesn’t attach bells and whistles to the mystery. It’s just there quietly on the page. (I am certain that this ending inspired Barnett when he wrote “Sam and Dave Dig a Hole.”)


It’s worrying to me that Barnett has paused his kids’ book journalism—I hope he gets back to this task.

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