6 Takeaways From Reading 12 Interviews with Maurice Sendak

Welcome back to the Kidlit Kitchen!

To start things off, I want to announce the winner of the awesome giveaway offered by last week’s interviewee, Andrew Hacket—a 30-minute "Ask Me Anything" call or a virtual classroom visit..

And the winner is . . . Carrie Fanin! In response to reading my interview with Andrew, Carrie wrote: “Thank you for this awesome interview, Andrew and Ryan! I can’t wait to get a physical copy of OLLIE into my hands. Loved this detail about Kaz’s illustrations: “ The little details, like his acorn-esque hat dangling from his branches or the way she kept his bowtie even in tree form, that take the art to the next level for me.”

I’ve got more exciting interviews lined up, and I can’t wait to share them with you. Stay tuned!

Okay, onto today’s post: “6 Takeaways From Reading 12 Interviews with Maurice Sendak.”

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I’ve been on a major productivity kick lately. 

I’ve been spending quite a bit of time studying how to be more productive, and I have to say: it’s actually working.

I’m not striving to more productive in a “I need to churn out a bunch of stuff” kind of way. I’m simply doing more of what I want to be doing, like reading books that have been in my to-read pile for a long time.

And it feels really good.

One of the books I recently finished—and loved—is Conversations with Maurice Sendak, edited by Peter C. Kunze. 

My goodness, what a treasure trove of wisdom. 

I thought I’d take this opportunity to share with you some of the insights I gained from reading these excellent interviews with Sendak, whom, as I’ve mentioned before, has been an inspiration to me for a long time. 

He’s whip-smart, incredibly creative, and more than a little curmudgeonly, and I hope these takeaways are as helpful to you as they have been to me.

1. Bring on the WEIRD books! Children love odd, idiosyncratic, wild stories, and we need more of them. Sendak puts it this way: 

““There is a whole theory about childhood that everybody works from, and people look for whether a picture book has followed the ‘rules’ about what is right for children, or what we think is right and healthy for children. This comes into conflict all the time with those things that are mysterious. Children don’t need a pedantic approach to the book. Children are much more catholic in taste; will tolerate ambiguities, peculiarities, and things illogical; and will take them into their unconscious and deal with them as best they can. The anxiety comes from the adults who feel that the book has to conform to some set of rituals about childhood, and unless this conforming takes place they are ill at ease.””

There are plenty of creators out there with weird stories and weird art. We need publishing gatekeepers to embrace these creators with open arms when they arrive at the gate. We need gatekeepers to seek them out, too.

2. Tell the TRUTH. For a long time, many stories for children have been sugarcoated. Saccharine, even. Many adults (including some book creators!) don’t trust that kids are capable of dealing with complexity—with reality. 

Here’s Sendak: 

“The basic ground-floor element [of a good children’s book] is honesty. Whatever you’re doing—a realistic story or fantasy or far-out science fiction—must begin with a basis of honesty. You must tell the truth about the subject to the child as well as you are able without any mitigating of that truth. You must allow that children are small, courageous people who have to deal every day with a multitude of problems, just as we do, and that they are unprepared for most things, and what they most yearn for is a bit of truth somewhere.”

Books have the power to help kids understand themselves and their world in powerful new ways. If more parents and publishers can get out of their own way by giving kids more credit for their ability to process books that are truthful about suffering, fear, death, and other difficult topics, then we can finally get out of the kids' way too.

I’m also reminded of all the book banning that continues to happen. 

Some parents and other gatekeepers want to keep stories about queer people and people of color away from their children. As if these people don’t—or shouldn’t—exist. 

We need to tell kids the truth. Life is beautiful. Life is hard. 

There’s much to love, and there’s a lot to be afraid of. 

The world is colorful and complicated. 

Humanity isn’t one thing, yet humanity is one thing. 

3. Trap your demons in your books. Who are the people that haunt you? What are the experiences or feelings or emotions that invade your consciousness without your permission? Who or what is living in your head rent free?

Consider trapping them in your next story.

Sendak says:

“We rid ourselves of these characters by writing them out of our lives . . . If I ran into these people in my social life, I would flee. I think we are always being chased by these people, and we keep creating books to get rid of them.”

First of all, this makes me laugh.

Second of all, I’ve heard lots of creators talk about writing and creating art as a form of therapy. That’s the general idea here—that by diving deeply into what brings us discomfort, we are essentially able to exorcize the demons inside us.

Photo by James Keyser, Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

4. Remember that your books are you trying to figure yourself out. If we write or illustrate authentically—from our heart, from the darkest parts of deepest self—then we give our readers an opportunity to connect with us and connect with their inner selves, too. 

Sendak explains: 

“Art is an exploration of yourself. If it’s good art, then it’s also an exploration for other people. If it’s poor art, you’re just playing, and you haven’t added to that work that makes it meaningful for other people. Art becomes that expression, the metaphor for a lot of internal musings.”

I’m currently reading The Creative Act by Rick Rubin, which is also excellent. And in that book, which I’m sure I’ll write about in a future essay, Rubin also discusses the importance of exploring the inner self: 

“If we focus on what’s going on inside ourselves—sensations, emotions, the patterns of our thoughts—a wealth of material can be found. Our inner world is every bit as interesting, beautiful, and surprising as nature itself. It is, after all, born of nature.

When we go inside we are processing what’s going on outside. We’re no longer separate. We’re connected. We are one.”

The only way to really connect with our readers is to first explore what’s going on inside us. By working to figure out ourselves—all of our messy thoughts, emotions, ideas—we put ourselves in a situation to create works that truly resonate with others. 

It’s a beautiful idea, and it certainly rings true for me.

5. Don’t create for children; create for your inner child. This one’s a similar idea to the previous takeaway—it’s certainly connected—but it’s also a bit more specific.

Sendak says,

“I never consciously set out to do books just for children; I’m out to do books that express myself. I’m no longer a child, so I have to express things that belong to grown-up people. If you find it in there, it should be in there. These are books strictly for kids, such as how to make a paper airplane or how to dress a doll, but that’s not my theme. My theme is living. I use a metaphor of children’s imagery and the form of a children’s book to express complicated, sophisticated adult feelings.”

This feels controversial, even today. Part of me agrees with this sentiment because I think a lot of great art comes from a deep place inside the artist. 

They’re the kinds of stories we often hear kidlit creators refer to as “stories of the heart.” 

And another part of me is pulled toward creating books with other children very much as the audience. As in, will this line make a five-year-old laugh? Or, what are today’s middle-grade-readers particularly attuned to? 

I’m also reminded of Jason Reynolds’ appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert a few years ago, when Colbert asked Reynolds about Sendak saying that he doesn’t write for children. Here’s how Reynolds responded:

“Me personally, I think this is a task of intention. This isn’t something I did and then they placed me here. This is something I continuously intentionally do every single day. Because who deserves our intention more than children?”

So. Good.

Side note: every time I hear Jason Reynolds speak I am in the awe of the sheer force and wisdom of the man. He’s amazing.

Anyway, for me, I’m going to try to hold both of these viewpoints simultaneously. I’m the kind of person who tries to find truth in a paradox, and I do think there’s wisdom in both, and that in an unexplainable way, Sendak and Reynolds are both right.

6. Keep items from your childhood—or items that remind you of your childhood—around your creative workspace. 

Sendak had an impressive collection of vintage Mickey Mouse toys and paraphernalia, and an interviewer asked him if the collection helped “trigger creative thoughts.”

Here’s Sendak response:

“Yes. That’s why I collect. I’m not a collector who collects just for collecting. Things have to refer back or give me some turn-on in my work. For instance, all the Mickey Mouse things started in the late ‘60s when I was doing In the Night Kitchen. I needed things from my childhood, and the Mickey Mouse things were my favorite. They helped me kind of taste that time and time again. The whole collection was really a means of turning me on to my book. All my collections,  including my book collection, are alway things that I can use in some way. They give me back something…like talismans.”

I had seen televised interviews with Sendak at his home before, and I noticed his collections in the background. I had a feeling that Sendak kept these things around for the very reason he articulated in the quotation I shared above, so when it came time for me to set up my home office, I made sure to find and display several objects from my childhood, including favorite books. 

Clearly, I agree with Sendak that there’s something magical about keeping these old objects around—objects that enthralled us for one reason or another. It’s almost as if their proximity might stir something up in us. 

I imagine this happens on the subconscious level. 

For me, at least, I don’t consciously look at any of the special objects from my childhood and say, “I’m going to write a story about you” or “looking at you just gave me the perfect story idea!” Though I imagine this actually does happen sometimes for some creators. 

Almost instinctively, many people keep meaningful objects in their workspace, such as framed photos of loved ones. And for those of us who create for children, it’s worth considering keeping meaningful objects from our own childhood close, too. 

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Alright, friends. That’s it from me. Now I’m eager to hear from you in the comments:

• Which of these takeaways resonated with you the most?

• What are your favorite weird or unconventional children’s books?

• I’d also love for folks to weigh in on the debate between creating specifically for children versus tapping into their own inner child. Do you believe that intentionality in creating content for children is the priority, or do you align more with the idea of expressing complex adult feelings through children's literature? Or are you a both-sides-are-right person like me?

I’d love to include some of your voices—and my responses—in my next post!

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