This Is My Secret: The Blog and Website of Writer Kristin Cashore

Okay, I should never have said that thing about how the next thing I blog is going to be the girl superhero post. All it's doing is preventing me from blogging anything at all. When in fact, I have some mighty complaints, like, for example, why in the name of all that is reasonable is the fabulous Jeremy Jordan not going to be starring in Finding Neverland now that it's moving to Broadway? Jeremy Jordan was SO SO SO SO wonderful as J.M. Barrie in that show. He has so much talent and charisma, his voice is beautiful, he is beautiful. AARGHHH! Thank goodness I had the chance to see him originating the role at the A.R.T. this summer/fall.


Also, big cats like boxes, too; baby elephants have, like, no control over their legs whatsoever; and there are some really great moments in this video of (domestic) cats freaking out. Oh my goodness, the kitten and the lizard.

Also, a conversation with a writer friend recently about the distinction between young adult and middle grade books led…

Sendak fans, get to the google search page by the end of the day and press play on Max to see the animation in honor of what would have been Sendak's 85th birthday. Beautiful.

Important ETA 6/11/13:  So, it turns out that Google has an archive of their doodles (of course), so you can always look for old Google doodles here: http://www.google.com/doodles/.

In fact, it's better than that: some of the doodles, if you click on them, give you in-depth information about the process of creating the doodle. (Here's info about the complicated Sendak doodle!) Not to mention the locations where it was visible, which I find interesting. I'm sorry the doodle for Federico García Lorca's 115th birthday was only visible in Spain! I had a cat named after him when I was a kid.

Anyway. Thanks JD, ever trusty and reliable!

I have so much sadness today at the news of the death of Maurice Sendak. I am crying at my airport gate. So much sympathy for his loved ones, and so much gratitude for all his work gave me – more than I can possibly express in this moment. The world has lost an irreplaceable soul.

The news on NPR.

ETA: Today Fresh Air re-broadcasted excerpts from Terry Gross's four interviews with Maurice Sendak over time. Listening to them again is marvelous. This should be the link to the interviews, if you're so inclined. Thanks, Liza, for the heads up.

ETA May 9: Also check out Dan Wasserman's comic in the Boston Globe saying goodbye to Sendak (brought tears to my eyes again).

Last Christmas, at my parents' house, my nieces (who were about 16 months old at the time) kept telling us that they wanted to be read to, but every time their mother, codename: Cordelia, began a new book, they would get distracted, wander around, then come back a few minutes later with another book, asking to be read to. They didn't seem to know what they were looking for.

Then Cordelia picked up Where the Wild Things Are. It was their first time ever seeing this book. Both girls went still; both girls watched and listened, entranced, to the entire story.

I felt that something I knew in my heart about books -- especially our very best books -- had just been proven true.

Here's a recent Fresh Air interview with Maurice Sendak. It's about 20 minutes long. As my sister codename: Apocalyptica told me when she sent me the link, it will make you happy and it will make you cry.