I committed to a half-Cannonball, so this is me accomplishing a goal! I began as I intend to finish, with a book by my all-time favourite author, Maurice Sendak.
My squishies are legendary lovers of books. I have bought and shared many many precious books with them, but this one, I admit, I have hoarded in my bedroom, away from their often-sticky fingers. So now it is a special book that the Littlest Squishie loves to look at when ever she is allowed to invade my space.
The story is about our heroine Ida, whose little baby sister is kidnapped by goblins to wed. Ida chases them down, outwits them and rescues her sister. I love that our heroine and her rescuee are both girls. Her Papa is away at sea and has charged her to look after her Mama and baby, so when her inattention lets the goblins steal away her sister, she takes responsibility to go Outside Over There to get her back.
The goblins look like babies, so Ida has to figure out which baby is her sister in order to save her. This is the part that my Littlest Squishie loves, she calls this the BABIES book and chortles with glee that the bad guys are babies.
This is a dark and terrifying story of a baby taken from her home by monsters and the dangers faced by her heroic sister to bring her back. Sendak has said that he based the story on the Lindburgh baby kidnapping that had terrified him in his own early childhood. Jim Henson was inspired by this story in making the movie Labyrinth. (Spoiler alert: there is no sexy Bowie nor his codpiece in this book!)
This book, even for a Sendak book, is extraordinarily beautiful. Each illustration is a work of art. It’s intricate, complex and dark. I usually prefer simple illustrations in a book but oh how I love how beautifully detailed this book is. The art rewards the eye as the text delights to be read aloud. Sendak had a gift with words as much as illustrations. I consider him the Master of illustrated books.