My favorite book, ever: Maurice Sendak's "Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or There Must Be More to Life"
My favorite children's author is, hands down, Maurice Sendak.
However, my favorite of his books is not the hugely famous Where The Wild Things Are, (yes, the same book that that Spike Jonze based his hit film on), although that's a good one. Instead, my personal favorite Sendak book is the much lesser known book from 1967 called:
Introducing "Jennie"
I remember my mother bringing this book home from one of her library conventions. She's always been something of a genius about spotting great children's literature early on, and always brought gifts from these trips which I still treasure today. Posters and odd first edition books by eccentric artists, like Edward Gorey (who apparently shared her love of 1920s raccoon coats) and the sweet husband-and-wife team of the D'Aulaires. She always came home with great gifts, and even better stories to tell.
In any case, ever since the day she brought home this book I've never been without it. Seriously. I've always kept this book. You can bury me with it.
It's a small book, just in black and white. It's a bit longer than his Wild Things, and has "chapters" which aren't always the kind of books little kids warm up to right immediately. However, this book has a magic that didn't just touch me, it grew over time.
The book's protagonist, or, "heroine," is a dog named "Jennie." Who, the writer tells us right away, is the kind of dog who "has everything." We also learn that in spite of having everything she is still "discontent with life." The book chronicles her journey out into the big bad world on her quest to experience "something different."
Even as I kid I was, like: "Hey! That's me! I have everything, but I'm still discontent! I want the kind of experience needed to be a star, too! Who wouldn't? I identify with this protagonist! "CALL EX 1-1212!" (You'll have to read the book to get that last part.)
Her personal journey was mine. As a kid, and later on as a struggling young actress I would think about how Jennie's life was a lot like my own, with all the trials and errors that go hand and hand with the heartbreaking life path that acting is. Inevitably, I saw that Jennie's journey was mine: I create the show, the show I star in! Seize the day. Embrace the characters you meet on your life's journey for unlikely as it may seem at the time, they will be your fellow actors in your play.
Yes, all the world's a stage! Where have I heard that before?
I also can't even remembered the times I wondered who I was more like, Jennie or The Plant. But, mostly only when I was feeling sorry for myself.
I. LOVE. THIS. BOOK.
Over the years, I've had time to ponder it's meaning.
Is Jennie supposed to be Nina from Chekhov's "The Seagull?" Is she on a tragic or comic journey? Both? And, just who was Baby's mom?
Jennie is the everyman in the story, I mean, the everydog.
We all carry seeds of discontent and a deep desire to make our mark in the world, only to discover things we didn't expect to on our journey.
Valuable lessons learned from "Higglety Pigglety Pop!"
- Sometimes the lion that almost ate you ends up being your guru.
- Sometimes you have to be really hungry to learn how to feed yourself.
- Sometimes, you have to just seize the day, even it's by snatching it out of the hands of others.
- And most of all, you have be ready to finally recognize who your friends really are.
- Friends do not give up on you when you are having a dark night of the soul.
- And, like Rhoda says, "We are all actors in The World Mother Goose Theater."
Geez, all this, and it's all done in simple in black and white, too.
No technicolor. No gimmicks. It's perfect.
Like I said, this little book is not as famous as Where The Wild Things Are, but my love for it runs deep.
And, I treasure it almost as much as I treasure having the kind of mom who always recognized great children's literatures and introduced me to the world of Maurice Sendak and so many other wonderful authors like him.
Jennie feigning hunger so Rhoda will hurry up and make pancakes to feed her.
Jennie, who had everything.
Apparently, she had the Mona Lisa, too.
I should add that if you are, like I am, a huge fan Sendak's art, then here's a link to a hardcover copy of The Art of Maurice Sendak: 1980 to Present (Hardcover) by written by "Angels in America," playwright, Tony Kushner, (I guess like attracts like.)
In short, if you care to know more about Sendak, do yourself a huge favor and buy yourself some of his books. (I've provided links to them at Amazon.com in this post.)
You're never too old to discover children's literature that touches your heart.
I really hope that this recent Jonze film "Where The Wild Things Are" actually does more than get people to read the original book that inspired it, but also his other books, as well.
Maurice Sendak's work is brilliant, profound, funny, magical and unlike anything else, on the planet.
Get to know all his books! Just don't get eaten by the Lion.
Comments
One year, a December in Vermont, she brought home a hermit crab from the junior high school. She came into the kitchen very excited to show it to me and fished about in the pocket of her ankle length raccoon coat only to pull out a wet mitten holding some snow. She exclaimed that she must have accidentally dropped a crab. Which was the first I'd even heard there was a crab coming home at all. We went out into the snow to look for a tiny crab but apparently it -- was lost. Why one would bring home a hermit crab in the dead of winter in the pocket of a coat mystifies me to this day, but not quite as much as why the same science home room teacher apparently "lent" her their class iguana. Again, something of a surprise until it was there. In a big wooden box with a light on it. I peered into the large box with a single light bulb and saw a 2.5 foot pale green lizard who did not seem happy about this trip at all. I remember asking her how we would feed and she said she though lettuce would work. A few days into this pet's stay with us, I peeked in the box and jumped out of my skin. The box was completely empty. I looked around the room (it was kept in my bedroom.) and rushed to tell my parents that it was missing. They looked a bit for it and then said "well, we don't have much heat the bedrooms" (which wasn't true. We had no heat in them.) so they said we'd have to all just carry on and check the sleeves of our coats for the time being as surfing the lizard went somewhere to keep warm. That news didn't help me get to sleep any easier until the following summer. When I finally took the big empty box out from my bedroom and finally saw a poor mummified carcass of the lizard directly under the box. I guess it had gotten stuck underneath somehow and it froze to death under there. I'm not sure why the school kept giving her rare creatures to care for during school vacations. But, I do know that I begged her not to bring any more home with her again.
I'm trying to think of other book I would have to say "changed my life" for some significant reason or another -- although none really could I ever love more than Higgelty Piggelty Pop.