Alligators All Around 
Maurice Sendak ~ Harper & Row, 1962
So many wonderful things all around the web have been said about Mr. Sendak in the past day. NPR replayed the tearjerker interview Terry Gross did with him last year, and his words are even more poignant now. If you haven't yet seen the Spike Jonze documentary on him, you are in for a treat. Maurice was definitively spending his twilight years sifting through the meaning of it all.
If we could all live every moment of our life with such honesty.
Today, I'll highlight the little handful of awesome that is my favorite book in his Nutshell Library.
The text covers the entire alphabet in full...
A - alligators all aroundB - bursting balloons
C - catching colds
D - doing dishes
E - entertaining elephants
my favorite being...
F - forever fooling
and possibly the best use of X ever in an alphabet book...
X - x-ing x's
Be it juggling jellybeans or pushing people or wearing wigs, being the mother of an only child and a boy, I've always thought this little gator family felt like home.
Another of the million and one reasons to miss Maurice.
Also by:A Very Special House
Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present
Moon Jumpers
What Do You Say, Dear?
Pierre: A Cautionary Tale
Some Swell Pup
Let's Be Enemies
Chicken Soup with Rice
Lullabies and Night Songs
Outside Over There
I'll Be You and You Be Me
The Juniper Tree
Where the Wild Things Are
Seven Little Monsters
Open House For Butterflies
Dear Mili
In the Night Kitchen
The Giant Story
The Griffin and the Minor Canon
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3 comments:
The Nutshell Library was the very first set of books I owned. These three little books were my favorites throughout the years, and now sit on the cabinet outside our bedroom, ready to be read to our little girls.
Ah, brilliant - this was my favourite alphabet book when I was little, and I got my own very battered copy back from my Mum when I had my oldest son. Then one day I found one of these tiny copies at a market, along with Chicken Soup With Rice, One Was Johnny and Pierre, none of which I'd ever seen before. As they're so small they're the books we read when the boys want 'Just one more story!) - so they get read a lot!
Oh, I had forgotten this adorable one. Thanks for the memories!
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