By CHARLES McGRATH [NY Times, 10 February 2006]

If the life of Maurice Sendak were a Maurice Sendak picture book, it would open with a busy two-page spread, done in the dark, crosshatched style he has sometimes used, of a sickly, unhappy Brooklyn childhood: brooding parents, a World War II recruiting poster, a scary image of Hitler and, over in the corner, a pair of burglars scuttling away with the Lindbergh baby — an image that haunted Mr. Sendak in his early years. In Disney style, which the very young Sendak used to imitate, the kidnappers wear great big shoes with little white squares to indicate a shine.