I don't have a night kitchen like Mickey or an island filled with wild things like Max. It's laptops for me yessirree and I type type type the words onto the page. No children's nonsense here. I work in my office busy through the day and into the night and through tomorrow.
Think it! Write it! Trim it!
Why Summer's here type type typing at my feet on her clacking keyboard.
"My goodness, Summer," I cry, "what are you doing here typing in my office?"
"Slide in once.
"Slide in twice.
"Slide through chicken soup with rice," chants little Summer dear.
She takes my hand and into Sendak's world we go, strolling together through the scenes of wild things and Rosie's stoop and one big bowl of yummy soup.
A wild thing himself comes down from his lofty perch and turns us into wild things, too. We growl and gnash and roar at each other.
"I'll eat you up!"
"I'll eat you up — I love you so!"
Mickey zooms by in his doughy plane and shows us how to find the cooks who make the cake we eat in the morning. We mix our milk into a bowl and churn out the morning's cake ourselves.
And look, it's Rosie sitting on her steps. Perhaps we'll play a game with her of make-believe. It could last all day long.
Hand in hand, we wander through these books sprung out of Sendak's life and into other lives they go.
Summer begins to miss her mother so she leads me back from wild things and soup and through Cleveland streets to my desk on the seventh floor.
"Goodbye once.
"Goodbye twice.
"Goodbye chicken soup with rice," she chants as she slips away into her mother's arms.
And here I sit no nonsense please type type typing on my screen.
The world of Maurice Sendak will be on display at the Western Reserve Historical Society from May 14 through Sept. 4. In addition to six interactive children's exhibits, where visitors are encouraged to dress up like wild things and dance in the wild forest, the show chronicles Sendak's life in pictures. Call (216) 721-5722 or visit www.wrhs.org for more information.
