Maurice Sendak

May 8th, 2012

Man, now Maurice Sendak is dead. The very first book I read by myself was Hector Protector and As I Went Over the Water.

What were your favorites, not counting Where the Wild Things Are?

When a friend of mine was growing up in NYC she got to see him tell and draw stories in person for an audience.

What a brilliant guy, who took children very seriously.

Wood between the worlds

May 8th, 2012

On day 8 of book tour. I’ve been reading lev grossman’s wonderful meta-Narnian fantasy book “The Magicians,” and am very struck with the way his Neitherlands, his version of Lewis’s Wood Between the Worlds, resembles an airport. I am trying hard to see the magic in the daily security lines, crowded planes, luggage mishaps, and ever-shifting array of boarding procedures. A young woman soldier across the aisle just told her father she loves him. I guess that’s a kind of magic.