"Where the Wild Things Are" Author Maurice Sendak Dead at Age 83

Maurice Sendak is dead, according to The New York Times and reported by HuffingtonPost.com. The famed author of the children's book "Where The Wild Things Are", written in 1963, was 83.

The Associated Press reported that Sendak died early Tuesday at a hospital in Danbury, Connecticut after having a stroke on Friday. His longtime caretaker and friend, Lynn Caponera, was with him.

Sendak won a Caldecott Medal for his book, enjoyed worldwide, in 1964. It was adapted into a movie in 2009.

According to The New York Times, a posthumous picture book, "My Brother's Book," is scheduled to be published in February 2013.

More from the Associated Press:

Sendak didn't limit his career to a safe and successful formula of conventional children's books, though it was the pictures he did for wholesome works such as Ruth Krauss' "A Hole Is To Dig" and Else Holmelund Minarik's "Little Bear" that launched his career.

"Where the Wild Things Are," about a boy named Max who goes on a journey – sometimes a rampage – through his own imagination after he is sent to bed without supper, was quite controversial when it was published, and his quirky and borderline scary illustrations for E.T.A. Hoffmann's "Nutcracker" did not have the sugar coating featured in other versions.

Sendak also created costumes for ballets and staged operas, including the Czech opera "Brundibar," which he also put on paper with collaborator Pulitzer-winning playwright Tony Kushner in 2003.

He designed the Pacific Northwest Ballet's "Nutcracker" production that later became a movie shown on television, and he served as producer of various animated TV series based on his illustrations, including "Seven Little Monsters," "George and Martha" and "Little Bear."

But despite his varied resume, Sendak accepted – and embraced – the label "kiddie-book author."

"I write books as an old man, but in this country you have to be categorized, and I guess a little boy swimming in the nude in a bowl of milk (as in `In the Night Kitchen') can't be called an adult book," he told The Associated Press in 2003.

"So I write books that seem more suitable for children, and that's OK with me. They are a better audience and tougher critics. Kids tell you what they think, not what they think they should think."

During that 2003 interview, Sendak alsoshe felt as if he were part of a dying breed of illustrators who approached their work as craftsmen. "I feel like a dinosaur. There are a few of us left. (We) worked so hard in the `50s and `60s but some have died and computers pushed others out."

Sendak, who did his work in a studio at the Ridgefield, Conn., home he moved into in the early 1960s, never embraced high-tech toys. He did, however, have a collection of Mickey Mouse and other Walt Disney toys displayed throughout the house.

When director Spike Jonez made the movie version of "Where the Wild Things Are," Sendak said he urged the director to remember his view that childhood isn't all sweetness and light. And he was happy with the result.

"In plain terms, a child is a complicated creature who can drive you crazy" Sendak told the AP in 2009. "There's a cruelty to childhood, there's an anger. And I did not want to reduce Max to the trite image of the good little boy that you find in too many books."

Sendak's own life was clouded by the shadow of the Holocaust. He had said that the events of World War II were the root of his raw and honest artistic style.

Born in 1928 and raised in Brooklyn, Sendak said he remembered the tears shed by his Jewish-Polish immigrant parents as they'd get news of atrocities and the deaths of relatives and friends. "My childhood was about thinking about the kids over there (in Europe). My burden is living for those who didn't," he told the AP.

Sendak, his sister Natalie, and late brother Jack, were the last of the family on his father's side since his other relatives didn't move to the United States before the war. The only family member Sendak really knew on his mother's side was his grandmother.

Sendak didn't go to college and worked a string of odd jobs until he went to work at the famous toy store FAO Schwarz as a window dresser in 1948. But it was his childhood dream to be an illustrator and his break came in 1951 when he was commissioned to do the art for "Wonderful Farm" by Marcel Ayme.

By 1957 he was writing his own books.

Sendak received the international Hans Christian Andersen medal for illustration in 1970. In 1983 he won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award from the American Library Association.

But it was "Brundibar," a folk tale about two children who need to earn enough money to buy milk for their sick mother that Sendak completed when he was 75, that he was most proud of. "This is the closest thing to a perfect child I've ever had."

Sendak stayed away from the book-signing bandwagon that many other authors use for publicity; he said he couldn't stand the thought of parents dragging children to wait on line for hours to see a little old man in thick glasses.

"Kids don't know about best sellers," he said. "They go for what they enjoy. They aren't star chasers and they don't suck up. It's why I like them."

Honor a Nurse: May 6-12 is National Nurses Week

Nurses do amazing things all throughout the year, and this week they are being celebrated. National Nurses Week is marked annually from May 6, also known as National Nurses Day, through May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.

Often described as an art and a science, nursing is a profession that embraces dedicated people with varied interests, strengths and passions because of the many opportunities the profession offers. Nurses work in emergency rooms, school based clinics and homeless shelters, to name a few facilities. They have many roles – from staff nurse to educator to nurse practitioner and nurse researcher – and serve all of them with passion for the profession and with a strong commitment to patient safety.

Please celebrate National Nurses Week by choosing to Honor a Nurse and make a gift to the American Nurses Foundation (ANF). Your gift will support a nationwide initiative to help nurses work with veterans and their families to respond to post-traumatic stress disorder and brain injury.

It's easy... go to Honor a Nurse. Provide the name of your honoree and why she or he matters to you. Your honoree's name will be featured on the ANF website and in its annual report.

Who do you respect and hold in the highest esteem -- a colleague, a teacher, a mentor, a friend, a family member? Speak up and out for a nurse you care about. Honor a Nurse during National Nurses Week and help support better health care for all.

Descendants of Westport Weston Y Founder Pledge $750K to Camp Mahackeno Project

The Westport Weston Family Y proudly announces recent contributions from two great-grandchildren of Family Y founder Edward T. Bedford. Lucie McKinney has pledged $500,000 in support of the Y’s campaign to construct a new Y facility. She is joined by her brother, Briggs Cunningham III, who has agreed to donate $250,000 toward the new Y at Mahackeno.
 
Lucie McKinney, who lives in Westport, is the mother of five children, including Y Board Members Libby McKinney Tritschler and John H. McKinney, who is serving his seventh term in the Connecticut State Senate. Briggs Cunningham resides in Kentucky.
 
“The Family Y is what it is today – a vibrant provider of essential community services – through the beneficence of Edward Bedford and his descendants,” said Jim Marpe, Chairman of the Family Y Board of Trustees.
 
“My mother and uncle respect the role the Family Y has long played in our community,” said Libby McKinney Tritschler. “With the capital campaign for our new Y at such a critical ‘go/no-go’ juncture, both of them knew it was time to step forward to help make sure that the wonderful charitable institution my great-great-grandfather founded nearly a century ago will continue to serve our community today and on through future generations.”
 
With the recent gifts from the Bedford descendants, as well as additional significant new contributions from other donors, the Family Y has now raised more than $9 million in cash and multi-year pledges. In all, the Family Y has identified $32.5 million in funding, including proceeds from the agreed-upon sale of its current home, built in 1923 by Mr. Bedford and expanded over time. Current estimates for the total cost of the first Phase of the new Y are approximately $36 million; Family Y campaign leaders are endeavoring to secure nearly 100 percent of the funds needed prior to the start of construction.
 
Provided that sufficient funding is in place, construction will begin this fall on Phase I of our new Family Y, starting with a 55,000 sq. ft. facility that will include a lap pool and family/teaching pool; expansive Wellness Center; multi-purpose Gymnasium; three large group-fitness studios; a Child Watch/Kids’ Adventure Gym area; five locker rooms; and other amenities of a modern, family-oriented Y facility.
 
“As more dollars are given, we’ll be able to expand our new Family Y and add the rest of the features envisioned in the original design for our Mahackeno campus,” said Bonnie Strittmatter, President of the Family Y’s volunteer Board of Directors. “We’re all hopeful that the Bedford family will continue to support the Family Y, and that they’ll be joined by other community leaders who wish to leave a lasting legacy – a new home that will allow us to continue to fulfill our historic mission as a center of community life and shared values.”

Khushi Kumar to Hold Bollywood Dance Practice in Prep for Aug. 15 Indian Independence Celebration

On August 15, Indians far and wide will celebrate India's Independence Day. Locally, Danbury hosts a large celebration on open grounds. With the goal of having a group from Fairfield participate in that celebration, Fairfield Bollywood Dance teacher Khushi Kumar is hosting practices for children at her home in preparation.

Kumar plans to conduct two performs, with a boys team and girls team and is expecting to have at least 10 children on each team. Kumar's instruction fee is $10 per class per student. Classes are one-hour long. Typically, says Kumar, it takes five to six classes to master one dance.

For more information, contact Kumar by email at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone at 203-852-0589.