Rest in Peace, Maurice Sendak

Maurice Sendak died Tuesday, May 08, 2012, of complications from a stroke.  His accomplishments in children’s literature are numerous.  As the article in the May 8, 2012 New York Times  noted, he “wrenched the picture book out of the safe, sanitized world of the nursery and plunged it into the dark, terrifying and hauntingly beautiful recesses of the human psyche,” changing the world of the picture book forever. He received the Caldecott Medal in 1964 for Where the Wild Things Are.  The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) presented him with the 1970 Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration.  The ALSC division of ALA presented him with the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award in 1983.  As noted on the web page “The Wilder Award honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.” He has one more book to be published; it will come out next February, titled My Brother’s Book.