by Moe Zilla

Created on: February 23, 2010

Each month is gay
each season nice
when eating chicken soup with rice.

It's described as a book of months, but Maurice Sendak also suggests a second story. Each page offers verses about a month of the year which always zag back to a closing couplet about delicious chicken soup with rice.
But like any good Sendak book, it's filled with rambunctious creatures and an adventurous little boy. And both the rhymes and the illustrations suggest his life is magical and exciting.

The little boy is proud, sharing the pleasures of his life - like a snowman's anniversary, or sliding on the ice in January. The illustrations show him with a smile on his face, his eyes closed with satisfaction. (And yes, he commemorates these occasions with a delicious bowl of chicken soup...) But as the year continues on, the simple pleasures turn less simple. In April, the boy visits Bombay - where he dreams of the chicken soup that he's missing. And in May he's turned himself into a bird - so he can cook the soup in his nest!

One year later, Maurice Sendak would publish "Where the Wild Things Are," but in 1962 he was still working on "The Nutshell Library." It's a collection of four books - besides this book of months, there's an alphabet book, a book of rhymes, and a fable about a boy who wouldn't care. They're sometimes sold as a set, and at least one edition includes special tiny four-inch versions of each book. But big or small, the story is a lot of fun to read.

In September
for a while
I will ride
a crocodile
down the chicken soupy Nile...

Each amazing adventure includes a gratuitous reference to chicken soup. And they also get a playful illustration, in which the smiling boy enjoys each improbable activity. It gives the book the perspective of a boy who has magical powers. But the book never explains where they come from - or why the boy is so crazy about his soup.

I found articles on the web which seemed to think the answer lies buried in Sendak's past. Sendak dedicates the book to Ida Perles, a neighbor he remembered from growing up in Brooklyn, and according to this article he created the book "as an affectionate way to poke fun at his mother's reliance on the concoction as a cure for all ills - including not just physical and emotional woes but also those of the soul."

But I think I enjoyed the story more without the explanation. It leaves the reader with a story delivered with the authority of an overconfident little boy who's sassy, has magical powers - and who very much likes his chicken soup!

With rice...

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