Starred Review ALA Booklist (Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 CST 2012)

Starred Review In his foreword, Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt describes Sendak's last, posthumously published book as "something rich and strange." And so it is. Combining lushly beautiful art in the manner of Blake and Fuseli with a text reconfigured from Shakespeare's Winter's Tale, Sendak's richly imagined book offers a magical and mysterious tribute to his beloved older brother, Jack, who died in 1995. The story follows the respective plights of two brothers, Jack and Guy, who are seemingly separated by a new star's smashing into the earth. Jack is catapulted into a continent of ice and "stuck fast in water like a stone." Guy, meanwhile, is plunged into the dangerous lair of a bear that threatens to consume him. Will the brothers survive to be reunited in love and peace? Distinguished by its pervasive sense of longing and informed by extraordinary art me of Sendak's most beautiful Brother's Book is a celebration of the enduring love of two brothers. One's first impulse is to marvel at the exquisite art and then to turn to the Shakespearean text to understand how the two seemingly disparate elements harmonize. Inviting reading and rereading, Sendak's tribute to his brother is also a final tribute to his own genius. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Is there a children's author whose name has been more enduring and recognizable than the late Sendak's?

Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

In his last finished work, Sendak tips a cap to intellectual and artistic influences, but he puts his own unique stamp on a lyrical flight that looks toward a reunion with Jack, his long-dead brother. As vivid and surreal as a dream, the narrative begins with the separation of Jack—catapulted to "continents of ice" where "[h]is poor nose froze"—and Guy, who lands "[o]n soft Bohemia" to be consumed by a hulking bear after posing his brother's fate as a "sad riddle." "Diving through time so vast—sweeping past paradise," Guy emerges at last into a mystical springtime where he finds Jack entwined in roots and "veiled blossoms." Guy bites Jack's nose "to be sure" and hearing his brother's sighed "Just lost—when I am saved!" enfolds him tenderly, whispering "Good night / And you will dream of me." In the small, loosely brushed paintings on each facing page, he depicts the brothers, reminiscent of William Blake's diaphanously gowned figures. Befitting the surreal textual imagery, they float in twisted postures amid stars and organic billows of moonlit clouds and landscape or lie together beneath canopies of greenery. The literary references (to Shakespeare, Keats, Emily Dickinson and others) may escape many, but they are secondary to the book's impact. The sharply felt humor and yearning that infuse both the verbal and visual narratives will kindle profound emotional responses in hearts of any age. (introduction by Stephen Greenblatt) (Illustrated poem. All ages)

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

In his last finished work, Sendak tips a cap to intellectual and artistic influences, but he puts his own unique stamp on a lyrical flight that looks toward a reunion with Jack, his long-dead brother. As vivid and surreal as a dream, the narrative begins with the separation of Jack—catapulted to "continents of ice" where "[h]is poor nose froze"—and Guy, who lands "[o]n soft Bohemia" to be consumed by a hulking bear after posing his brother's fate as a "sad riddle." "Diving through time so vast—sweeping past paradise," Guy emerges at last into a mystical springtime where he finds Jack entwined in roots and "veiled blossoms." Guy bites Jack's nose "to be sure" and hearing his brother's sighed "Just lost—when I am saved!" enfolds him tenderly, whispering "Good night / And you will dream of me." In the small, loosely brushed paintings on each facing page, he depicts the brothers, reminiscent of William Blake's diaphanously gowned figures. Befitting the surreal textual imagery, they float in twisted postures amid stars and organic billows of moonlit clouds and landscape or lie together beneath canopies of greenery. The literary references (to Shakespeare, Keats, Emily Dickinson and others) may escape many, but they are secondary to the book's impact. The sharply felt humor and yearning that infuse both the verbal and visual narratives will kindle profound emotional responses in hearts of any age. (introduction by Stephen Greenblatt) (Illustrated poem. All ages)

School Library Journal (Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 CST 2013)

Gr 7 Up-In Sendak's final opus, as in his life, a youth yearns to be with his beloved brother. A cosmic cataclysm has divided them, leaving Jack ensconced in "iced eternity." Guy is prepared to join him-whatever the risk. While this sounds dire, the author's synthesis of ideas from a wide span of literature and art, combined with exquisitely illuminated scenes, conveys instead a quest in which the ultimate sacrifice leads to complete fulfillment. Free-verse narration accommodates the breadth of referents. The Winter's Tale inspires a dialogue that occurs after Guy has floated into Bohemia, where his body is inserted, head first, into a bear's gigantic jaws (minus the violence in Goya's similarly posed Saturn Devouring His Children ). Sendak softens the potential terror with a proposition from the protagonist: his life for an answer to a winter riddle: "In February it will be/My snowghost's anniversary/&30;Bear!-Tell me!-Whither?-Where?" Guy then "slipped into the [bear's] maw" and dissolved "into springtime." The bear is a complex character that uses strong language, yet his final stance suggests a capacity for gentleness. Stylistically, the three-quarter-page paintings reveal the artist's admiration for Samuel Palmer (a student of William Blake), particularly in the tender conclusion: two figures in peaceful repose under a leaf-drenched landscape, streams of dazzling watercolor erupting before a glow that warms the once-frozen setting. The frontispiece version of this scene indicates that the story is "&30;two brothers, dreaming the same dream." One last example of Sendak's daring, poignant, mysterious storytelling. Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library