Caldecott & Co. Quotes

“Peter Rabbit, for all its gentle tininess, loudly proclaims that no story is worth the writing, no picture worth the making, if it is not a work of imagination.”
― Maurice Sendak, Caldecott & Co.: Notes on Books and Pictures

“Where the Wild Things Are was not meant to please everybody – only children. A letter from a seven-year-old boy encourages me to think that I have reached children as I had hoped. He wrote: ‘How much does it cost to get to where the wild things are? If it is not expensive my sister and I want to spend the summer there. Please answer soon.’ I did not answer that question, for I have no doubt that sooner or later they will find their way, free of charge.”
― Maurice Sendak, Caldecott & Co.: Notes on Books and Pictures

“There is a standard theory about childhood that everybody works from, and critics check whether a picture book has followed the 'rules' about what is right for children, or what is healthy for children, or what we think is right and healthy for children. This comes into conflict all the time with those things that are mysterious. Children are much more catholic in taste; will tolerate ambiguities, peculiarities, and things illogical; will take them into their unconscious and deal with them as best they can.”
― Maurice Sendak, Caldecott & Co.: Notes on Books and Pictures

“Books don't go out of fashion with children. They just go out of fashion with adults and publishers.”
― Maurice Sendak, Caldecott & Co.: Notes on Books and Pictures