His imagination redefined children’s literature_美文

His imagination redefined children’s literature

In nineteen seventy Maurice Sendak published “In the Night Kitchen.” It tells the story of a little boy named Mickey. Mickey enters the dream world of a night kitchen. He falls into a large container of cake batter being mixed by three fat cooks. He makes an airplane out of bread dough and flies around the kitchen. Some people criticized the book because Mickey is shown without his clothes as he falls into the batter. But "In the Night Kitchen" was a big success.

Where the bakers who bake till the dawn so we can have cake in the morn mixed Mickey in batter, chanting: Milk in the batter! Milk in the batter! Stir it! Scrape it! Make it! Bake it! And they put that batter up to bake a delicious Mickey-cake. But right in the middle of the steaming and the making and the smelling and the baking Mickey poked through and said: I’m not the milk and the milk’s not me! I’m Mickey!

Over the years, Maurice Sendak also worked on many theater productions. He helped make “Where the Wild Things Are” into an opera. He also created set designs for productions of “The Nutcracker” and “The Magic Flute."

In two thousand three, Maurice Sendak worked with the playwright Tony Kushner on a picture book called “Brundibar.” The book is based on a children’s opera by the Jewish Czech composer Hans Krasa. Two poor children must buy milk for their sick mother. They try to raise money from the people in their town by singing on the street. A mean man named Brundibar chases them away. But, with the help of a group of children and some talking animals, they raise the money to buy the milk.