Wild things

That was what his books were about,especially the 1963 tale that at first scared the adults but forever fascinated the children Where the Wild Things Are,which sold about 20 million copies and overshadowed everything else that he wrote and drew,including the latest Bumble-Ardy. In Where the Wild Things Are,the classic tale of petulant Max,Sendak showed the grotesque in growing-up and how that itself changes shape. Maxs violence is just a prelude to isolation,and imagination that could turn his room into a forest and an ocean. Sendak,who knew the horrors of the Holocaust,knew that a childs life was hardly cloistered from the dangers of the adult world. And he refused to cater to the bullshit of innocence. His art too was a curious admixture of opposites beauty and dread,man and beast,child and adult. A little boys nudity in In the Nights Kingdom disturbed many parents,schoolteachers and librarians in the early 1970s America some drew a diaper on Mickey,a few burnt the book. But Sendak knew who he should keep happy first the child in me and others were only happy to join in.

Our age overworks itself with scissors and sanitisers on fairy tales and books for children until they are impossibly sweet. But Sendak showed the futility of it all. His message was profound: there are no childrens books,only books that children could like.