“THERE IS SOMETHING in this country that is so opposed to understanding the complexity of children.” So said Maurice Sendak a few months before he died, his rheumy eyes drifting off to gaze into yet another space others are unable to see. He was the author and illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are, yes, but also twenty-one other books that took kids seriously, revolving, he once said, around children’s growth, survival, and fury.
I have not brought a child into this world. I remain frighteningly clueless about and and across the checkout counter.
