Library Installs Maurice Sendak Exhibit [AUDIO]

The Natrona County Public Library has a new exhibit from Author and Illustrator Maurice Sendak, who is perhaps most well know for his book "Where the Wild Things Are." Library Community Relations Coordinator Brenda Thomson says there are things less well known about Maurice Sendak.

Lost family in the holocaust:

SANDOVAL: You've got a Maurice Sendak thing going on, and holocaust survivor ... .

THOMSON: Yeah, and those all go together, what it is is an exhibit that will be at the library from now until October 14th. It's about Maurice Sendak who was the author and illustrator of "Where the Wild Things Are" and over 100 other children's books, and then we'll be having events that go along with that exhibit, as well.

SANDOVAL: Okay, how is, how is Maurice Sendak connected with holocaust survivor?

THOMSON: Well, Maurice Sendak was born in 1928 in Brooklyn to a Jewish family, Polish immigrants, and much of his extended family was still in Europe during the time of the holocaust, and many of them died during that time. So, not so much during the "Wild Things" but in many of his other books he was working through, through his artwork, he was working through the process of trying to deal with the holocaust and what had happened to his family. And throughout his work, his Jewish heritage and history is very important.

SANDOVAL: I didn't, I didn't know that about Maurice Sendak.

THOMSON: I didn't either until I saw this exhibit.

SANDOVAL: Okay, so when, how long is the exhibit?

THOMSON: The exhibit's up now. It's open during regular library hours, and it will be here through October 14th. We are having an opening reception for it on Thursday the 8th at 6:30 here at the library. And we're going to be having a Jewish story teller come up from Denver, and she's going to be doing a program that evening, so that should be a really interesting way to kick off the exhibit and kind of get a feel for who Maurice Sendak and the culture that he was a part of.

SANDOVAL: Nice, okay, well, thank you very much.

THOMSON: Sure.