He loved it so much, he ate it.

Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim: I loved your card.” Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.” That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.

—Maurice Sendak

 

I like Where the Wild Things Are. I do not love it the way many people do but I do love this story Maurice Sendak shared. I love the visual of a small child eating something he was so excited by. I can relate because I so often eat things that I am excited by. None of them have been literary yet though.