Mentor Monday: RIP Maurice Sendak - and Thank you.

I have realized to my embarrassment that I was scheduled to post yesterday.  However, having missed that deadline, I am presented with this opportunity - to mourn, with the rest of the world of Children's literature, the passing of Maurice Sendak - and to suggest, for Mentor Monday, that we all remember this piece of advice he gave: “I never spent less than two years on the text of one of my picture books, even though each of them is approximately 380 words long. Only when the text is finished do I begin the pictures.”

I commend to you Sendak's essay in William Zinsser's Worlds of Childhood: The Art and Craft of Writing for Children. Published back in 1998, it is widely available, and in addition to Sendak's essay, includes insights from Jack Prelutsky, Rosemary Wells, Jill Krementz, Jean Fritz and Katherine Paterson.

Oh, and go read Where the Wild Things Are. Out loud. With feeling.