Sendak drew feelings - first and last, the feelings of small children.
But open the covers of those books and you’ll find tenderness, wit, and imagination as a common bond - qualities that they have in common with the unfettered young. Maurice Sendak, Arnold Lobel, James Marshall, Remy Charlip, and Tomie dePaola differ in just about every outward way, from the look and content of their books to the course of their lives and careers. That’s what a number of gay picture-book creators - distinctively, perhaps - have been doing for the past sixty years or so. But in any case it’s a rare father who, qua father, has Manley’s playful imagination, his creative reach: in sum, his ability to think big on a small child’s level. First, being gay is less and less a barrier to fatherhood. “Do you have kids?” the Times reporter asked. That one was designed for youngsters eighteen months to three years old.
In 2014, he was in New York doing My House, a “mostly wordless solo piece co-starring a cardboard box and a wayward melon,” according to the New York Times. From the March/April 2015 cover by Tomie dePaola.Īndy Manley, a Scottish theater artist, travels the world putting on shows for children.
