2007-03-12 I'm sorry to say a bit of a let down.

I really wanted to like this book.
I firmly believe that Maurice Sendak has created timeless childrens' books and some of the best childrens' books ever written or illustrated.
His artwork alone changed childrens' books for the better and forever with "Where the wild things are", his follow up books "In the night kitchen " and "Outside over there" were also magnificent works of art, this one however I feel lets the side down a little.
The pictures seem a little flat and have a "workbook, Sketchy" feel to them, like this is the first draft of a book that could be quite good.
The size of the book also lets it down, being really rather small, the crease in the page where it is joined together to form a book eats into the page and the illustration and means that you don't get the full impact of the work. Also because this is a children's' book and designed to be shared it needs to be bigger, it just isn't big enough to let your child get a really good look when sat on your knee "reading" with you
You could have solved this problem by giving the child the book to look at themselves, however the book isn't sturdy enough for this with delicate pages that rip easily and as it is a learning book designed to teach pre-reading children the alphabet it can't really be used without someone to read it out loud to its target audience.
I am really sad to be critical of such an important author and illustrators work but it is such a let down from his other career defining works ("Where the wild things are", "In the night kitchen" and "Outside over there" ) that I feel ... well disappointed.