My Brother's Book

Gr 7 Up—In Sendak's final opus, as in his life, a youth yearns to be with his beloved brother. A cosmic cataclysm has divided them, leaving Jack ensconced in "iced eternity." Guy is prepared to join him-whatever the risk. While this sounds dire, the author's synthesis of ideas from a wide span of literature and art, combined with exquisitely illuminated scenes, conveys instead a quest in which the ultimate sacrifice leads to complete fulfillment. Free-verse narration accommodates the breadth of referents. The Winter's Tale inspires a dialogue that occurs after Guy has floated into Bohemia, where his body is inserted, head first, into a bear's gigantic jaws (minus the violence in Goya's similarly posed Saturn Devouring His Children). Sendak softens the potential terror with a proposition from the protagonist: his life for an answer to a winter riddle: "In February it will be/My snowghost's anniversary/…Bear!-Tell me!-Whither?-Where?" Guy then "slipped into the [bear's] maw" and dissolved "into springtime." The bear is a complex character that uses strong language, yet his final stance suggests a capacity for gentleness. Stylistically, the three-quarter-page paintings reveal the artist's admiration for Samuel Palmer (a student of William Blake), particularly in the tender conclusion: two figures in peaceful repose under a leaf-drenched landscape, streams of dazzling watercolor erupting before a glow that warms the once-frozen setting. The frontispiece version of this scene indicates that the story is "…two brothers, dreaming the same dream." One last example of Sendak's daring, poignant, mysterious storytelling.—Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library