#415 of 1001 · September 19, 2021

There’s an even mix of cozy humor and starlit mystery permeating the pages of Maurice Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen. Mickey tumbles out of his bed and into an otherworldly plane rimmed by a skyline of buildings formed from everyday food objects, where a trio of bakers is busy preparing bread in a large oven. He lands in their bowl of dough, spends some time in the oven, and later pops out alive and unharmed. He then shapes the dough into a propeller plane, which he flies up to the rim of a towering milk bottle. After pouring out a stream of milk to replenish the bakers’ supply, Mickey slides down the side of the bottle and lands, safe and sound, back in his own bed. Sendak combines a loose, jangly rhythm with irresistibly bouncy rhyme in his winning text. The offbeat illustrations draw on myriad influences, including classic comics (the dreamlike setting recalls the art of Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland) and Hollywood stars (the identical bakers unmistakably bear the face of actor Oliver Hardy). #night #kitchen #bed #dream #sleep #baker #bake #bread #dough #plane #milk #cake #book #books #childrensbooks #picturebook #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks