When Lil Zen was born, I bought her every book by Maurice Sendak that I could find. We read them all many times and she still has all of them in her bookcase in her tiny little apartment. The illustrations always thrilled me; I especially love his people with their great huge feet. But “In the Night Kitchen” was a favorite for both of us.
Like many Sendak books, this one had been banned here and there over the years. It was first published in 1970 and i was reading it to her after 1984. It was still controversial. Well, it did have a little boy, falling out of bed, falling out of his pajamas and into the a plane made of dough, naked. Pretty heady stuff. Lil Zen loved that he could fall out of his pajamas.
When she was in elementary school, she had to make a diorama of one of her favorite stories and she chose “In the Night Kitchen” of course. This is the page we chose to do. I copied the figures, she cut and colored them, and we glued them all together in this scene. It was a big hit with us. She got a good grade on it and we had a lot of fun.
I thought of it recently while cleaning out closets. You find a lot of old things that you have to decide whether to keep or toss. I found the left over copies and bits, stored for a later use, but decided to let them go. The diorama exists with her books. She’ll have to decide about that one day.
As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group is for us to check in at to let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wild fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, or other such things that could keep us off DKos. It's also so we can find other Kossacks nearby for in-person checks when other methods of communication fail - a buddy system. Members come here to check in. If you're not here, or anywhere else on DKos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, etc.), we and your buddy are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care! IAN is a great group to join, and a good place to learn to write diaries. Drop one of us a PM to be added to the Itzl Alert Network anytime! We all share the publishing duties, and we welcome everyone who reads IAN to write diaries for the group! Every member is an editor, so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote or news!Monday
Crimson Quillfeather alternate with
Tuesday ejoanna
Wednesday Caedy
Thursday art ah zen
Friday FloridaSNMOM
Saturday Alexandra Lynch
Sunday loggersbrat