Children Book Picks: Maurice Sendak

We had a playdate the other day.

Layla took out Where the Wild Things are and read-aloud to Jiejie right before our leaving. I was impressed with her able to read the book independently.

The plot of the book is based on the fantasy (and real) consequences of a little boy's mischief. One night Max dresses up in his wolf suit and does all kinds of things he shouldn't, like chasing the dog with a fork. His mother scolds him and calls him a "WILD THING!" Max is so mad he shouts back, "I'LL EAT YOU UP!" As a result, his mother sends him to his bedroom without any supper.

I observed timid Jiejie seemed didn't get frighten by the Wild Things in the book.

So I tried to search for the book in library after that, but could only found the other two of Mr Sendak's classic: In the Night Kitchen and Very Far Away.

Jiejie didn't agree to borrow those 2 books at first looked at the covers.

It looks oldies and oddly bland, especially Very Far Away. She then changed her mind after I finished reading about the little cowboy.

Both feature boys differently; one in his dream adventure in a surreal baker's kitchen, and the other is a boy dressing in cowboy hat and boots running away because of not being listened to. 

It was interesting to read how each and every story brilliantly captures the child's feeling and fantasies. Some of the illustrations are dark, some are being criticised, like The Hungry Readers said about In the Night Kitchen.

But I like how brave Mickey is to tell the bakers that "I'm not the milk and the milk's not me! I'm Mickey!"

I also like the end of the other 2 books when both boys realised they ain't angry anymore and justified them selves to return to their mothers."And then Mama will tell me what refined means and why horses dream and why cats ever sing when they don't know how." Martin ran all the way home. 

It was very much later I found the translated version of Where the Wild Things Are：野兽出没的地方 =).

We are immersed into Maurice Sendak's world, a fantasy world that shows true feelings of a child. At the same time, I learn about dark emotions and fantasies of a child.

Thanks to Mama Evelyn. She seems to have very good pick in classic children books and books based on real people as well as having fun with books.

Food = Life

Recently, there have been an article published that reported that we have reach world population of 7 billion people. What really sobering from this article is that 1 billion people are in hunger everyday. This year, 6 million children might die from hunger related causes, if no help is given to them. 

While I was listening to the news about the 7 billion population in SC's car, on my way to office, it reminded me that, humanity used the equivalent of 1.5 planets to support its activities currently. I felt uneasy about sad reality world.


Not all children are equally fed with sufficient amount of food and aided with right resources. We should simplify our living in this part of the world. We should not pamper our children with too much toys, wearing and food. I should start to re-organise & de-cluttering my way of living. I should continue the effort to go green.


Knowing a child dies from hunger every 2.3 seconds, I was weeping, sadly, from this video to that video. 


Lately, fussy little eater Jiejie's frequently used phrase is "not fair", as she sees unfairness treatment on her self. So much as she used it as an excuse to skip her hot serving food: how not fair it was that she got so much more amount of food in her plate. Frankly she eats like a cat, but I spent too much energy in the kitchen to make effort to attract her appetite. Sometime, I bribed her with ice cream after meal, or waited till she willingly to eat. I am not a sweet nice mummy all the time, I got angry sometime too and would put her in thinking corner to cry out loud (as if it helps to consume her energy and make her eat more). Last week we all were sick one after another, my patience seemed shorter limit than usual, and together with the hungry children news that was kept in my mind, I told her that I should have chuck her in Africa if she mumble again on "not fair" to be asked to eat.


She is so fortune to be here and served with variety of meals!


But I reckon she had little clue about what I said until I showed her Children's Hunger Fund. She asked many whys and hows: why children have no food to eat; how disaster destroys a home shelter; how precious is clean water to a community; why food is scarcely to some family... She may not grasp the entire picture of what happen beyond her comfort zone, but she wasn't hesitate to contribute some money for helping to buy food for the poor children.


I just hope she cherish with what she has and will not abuse using the phrase "not fair" from now on. 


We all have be reminded for not taking things for granted, continuously!

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

A group of mommy bloggers are coming together to create awareness for this dire situation and raise funds to help hungry kids around the world. Through Children’s Hunger Fund. With US 5 cents, it’s enough to provide a meal to a hungry child.

So I am appealing to you for your participation in this little fund raising activity. All you need to do is this:

1. Crop and paste any of this above information or pictures on your blog site, together with this logo (just right click and save image in your hard drive or copy the html for this to add as a widget to your site)

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/catchfortywinks/6308510246/" title="CHF by catch40winks, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6045/6308510246_604f399a76.jpg" width="250" height="87" alt="CHF"></a>

2. Appeal for friends and readers on your site to go directly to this page to make direct contributions. All it takes is US $5.00 for 100 meals for the children. Of course, it will be great if you can contribute more. You can also go to this page to make a direct contribution to areas that are most needed; like disaster relief. 

3. Organise your own fund raising activity. 

There are plenty of ideas that you can adopt to raise the funds;
- Bake sale
- Make and Sell a product
- Give up a birthday gift
- Lose weight by missing a meal and contributing what you might have spent on the meal to the Children's Hunger Fund

4. If you have a preschooler or a child who has learnt to save some money, talk to him/her to see if he can give a little of his money to help to feed hungry children.

Children's Hunger Fund is a Christian nonprofit organization that works to alleviate the suffering of children in impoverished regions across America and around the world. Since CHF began in 1991, many with their donations have helped them distribute more than $927 million in food and other resources to serve the needs of more than 10 million children in thirty-five U.S. states and seventy-two countries worldwide. Charity should transcend religion and race, help us and Children's Hunger Fund to show a child in some remote corner of our world that he/she is loved. THANK YOU. 

Do drop me a note if you are interested to participate and will be putting this fund raiser activity up on your blog or FB page. My deepest appreciation and thanks in advance for your kind and giving contribution to Children's Hunger Fund!