Oh, how I will miss the excitement of reading new books by Maurice Sendak... and that reminds me of how much my 1st graders loved my soundtrack of "Really Rosie" in about 1975! We even acted out the Carole King-sung songs for a parent program after the show ran on TV!

When Sendak came to Rochester to speak at an International Reading Association meeting (I think) my wonderful children's lit professor at Geneseo, Margaret Poarch, arranged for a group to attend his presentation and my first author signing!

It was thrilling to have him sign a book for my students, and I chose my paperback copy of their favorite, _Pierre_. I remember telling him, in addition to how much my students loved his books, that "someday" I hoped to be able to afford hardcovers instead! How sad that almost forty years later I STILL cannot! Thank goodness for libraries!

Posted today by the Children's Book Council on facebook:

Animation from the 1975 'Really Rosie' TV special set to the Dresden Dolls' cover of 'Pierre' = bliss! (seems to work best if you copy-cut-paste the following link into your browser)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWnuGcI8QwU&feature=player_embedded#