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I have a confession to make. I have a complex relationship with Maurice Sendak. It started a long time ago, but, darn it, I’m still affected by it. I’ll give you the basic gist of what happened. From the time I was little, my mom would gather up the kids and we would all walk to the public library, pulling a red wagon of books to return and pushing the stroller of anyone too small to make the trip on foot. So, the Reseda branch of the library is where my memories of choosing books according to my own interests began. However, it is also where I first learned that people have different ideas of acceptable reading material. The majority of the books I chose were greeted warmly by my mother, and I hauled or carried enough of them home to stretch my arms out forever. In fact, I only remember one time when a book got vetoed. As a kindergartner, I wanted to check out Maurice Sendak’s nearly new In The Night Kitchen but it was a no go. Apparently, some women at church had been talking about their suspicions that Mr. Sendak must be a pedophile since some of his illustrations included main character Mickey in the nude. Therefore, I wasn’t allowed to be exposed to his books. It’s weird how things change over time because the only thing I noted about the nakey pictures was that it seems like Mickey is intact. And I’m O.K. with that.
http://www.amazon.com/Night-Kitchen-Caldecott-Collection/dp/0060266686

http://www.answers.com/topic/maurice-sendak

Did you know that Harry Potter was banned in some places? How about In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak? Or Forever . . . by Judy Blume? All those great books, and many more, have been banned at some time, some place.

Now there’s a new site to help promote banned books– bannedbooksweek.org. The site was crated by the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and the American Library Association, to help booksellers and librarians promote Banned Books Week (September 27-October 4), and to help readers find banned books through participating bookstores and libraries.

If you work at a bookstore or library and would like to be listed, you can submit details here.

The site is a little skimpy right now on information–I would love to see a comprehensive list (by genre or category) of all the books that have been banned, and when. I’m assuming that will come, though. In the meantime, the site has some good ideas about what you can do to help around banned books.

Thanks to Shelf Awareness for the info.

Sarah's talked this week about herself, her cats, her book, maps, and biscuits and bacon. Before saying toodle-oo today, because editors are such an important part of the book-making process, she wanted to share her thoughts about Ursula Nordstrom, the legendary director of the HarperCollins children's books division from 1940 to 1973.

I didn't really understand what book editors do, or how they feel about their work, until my own editor sent me Dear Genius, which is a book of letters from Ursula Nordstrom to many of the authors she worked with, including E.B. White, Margaret Wise Brown, Maurice Sendak, M.E. Kerr, Russell and Lillian Hoban, etc, etc, etc. UN had her hand in so many of the best-loved children's books published during those years; she had a vision, and she stuck to it.

The book was a revelation, really. Publishing is big business, right? HarperCollins, as far as I know, is owned by a huge multinational corporation. And we writers are aware of the tension between the business and the book. We love our own books, and we worry about whether they're going to sell well enough to make our publisher happy. This tension is nothing new; UN felt it, and referred angrily at the end of her career to "those tiny, tiny persons who live on the well-known bottom line."

As director, UN had to be aware of the bottom line, but she quite often fell in love with a book or with a piece of artwork. "There are a lot of us in publishing," she said, "who are just as romantic, or perhaps more romantic, about books than many of the authors and artists." Reading a book sent to her by one of her authors, she describes herself: "I sit here in shimmering happiness over such a lovely manuscript."

Once an author or artist was 'hers,' she became his or her champion. She discovered Maurice Sendak when he was designing shop windows at FAO Schwartz! She defended his controversial In the Night Kitchen (in the pictures, the little boy is naked) against prudish readers who wanted to censor the book and described one of her responses as leaving 'blood all over the keyboard.' She describes herself as "one who has fought, bled, and practically died to do good books whether or not they were going to be immediately profitable."

Sometimes her 'geniuses' didn't produce the work they were contracted to do. UN was a master of gentle flattering persuasion—dear genius, the world needs your beautiful book! As deadlines pass, she prods gently, and sometimes with dramatic desperation. Kay Thompson was supposed to do another Eloise book for Harper, but she didn't turn the book in on time, and stopped answering letters or phone calls. UN wrote, "I wonder if I'm dead and I don't realize it, and that's why you can't get in touch with me." And Edward Gorey made her nuts! After repeated delays, she said she hoped Harper could publish the book "before a truck knocks me down and kills me."

She was passionate about her books and her artists and authors. And I think that tradition in publishing is still alive. Editors still buy books because they fall in love with them. Thanks to them, readers can find books that they, too, can fall in love with.

Have you ever read a book that made you feel "shimmering happiness"? I bet its editor felt that way, too.


We'll leave you pondering that question while we thank Sarah for her enlightening post on editors and for a divine debut week. Best of luck, Sarah!

P.S. Everyone be sure to check our HarperCollins's new website for THE MAGIC THIEF, it just launched.

How much work did I do on my novel this weekend and last weekend? Exactly none.

Living, working and writing at the same time in the middle of a holiday season is no way to finish a larger writing project. While daydreaming about vacations, I've spent a little bit of time surfing the web for alternatives to this madcap lifestyle. 

If you have a clear idea of what you want to write next, but need the time to do it--you should check out the Alliance of Artist Communities.

The site holds a huge list of grants and retreats for all kinds of artists. You can find a temporary escape from the dayjob, home, and everyday distractions that keep you from writing.

If that's not enough for you, magazine writer Jeff Gordinier points out a new kind of vacation for writers. Check out the Wave Books Poetry Farm: 

"Our 12-acre (uncertified) organic fruit & vegetable farm is open to poets willing to work for four good hours a day in exchange for room, board, and a new environment in which to write."