Press Clippings
Review for Angels and Wild Things from "New from Penn State Press" Press Release"New Book Explores the Reflections of American Life in Maurice Sendak's Major Works
Over the course of more than eighty books that he has written and illustrated in a career that has spanned four decades, Maurice Sendak has become the most influential and, at times, the most controversial creator of works for children. Each of the books in his trilogy - Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, and Outside Over There - has dramatically expanded the boundaries of subject matter and images that have been conventionally accepted in books for younger children. Angels and Wild Things: The Archetypal Poetics of Maurice Sendak by John Cech... examines the unique contribution of Sendak to the literature of childhood.
By fusing biographical, historical, cultural, and literary materials, this study traces the evolution of Sendak's work - from its first, bold steps in the 1950s, to its liberating breakthroughs of the 1960s and early 1970s, to the rich complexity of his most recent books. Angels and Wild Things documents the major role that Sendak played in helping develop a literature of fantasy for young children, one that could explore the "inside," the emotional, imaginative terrain of a child's experience."
Review for Angels and Wild Things from The Chronicle of Higher Education "The Emotional Terrain of Childhood" May 24, 1996 HERE