New Sendak Book in Sept 2011

In the roundabout way of things, we first learned of Maurice Sendak's new picture book from HarperCollins in a Facebook posting by Philip Nell ... who directed attention to a Wall Street Journal essay by Katherine Rosman which (as a Google search shows) has since been picked up by everyone. In these we learn that "Bumble-Ardy" is:

• the first book Sendak has both illustrated and written in nearly 30 years

• the story of a pig who has his first-ever birthday party when he turns 9

• a character first developed in 1971 in an animated short produced for "Sesame Street" by Jim Henson

You can see a video of the Sesame Street episode on YouTube. Sendak fans will, no doubt, note the resemblance to "One Was Johnny."