Poetic Obituaries: His youngest, now 10, he says,

"still wants her childhood story books read aloud at night, and just last week we read again 'Chicken Soup with Rice.' "

That [Maurice] Sendak poem, he says, "even outside its hilarious illustrations, does just what a poem should do. It sets up a pattern and then surprises you again and again."

Professor [Joseph] Heithaus says the Sendak work, working similarly to a ghazal, an ancient Persian poetic form, incites the reader to play along. "What child hearing that book aloud doesn't join you in the refrain--Chicken Soup with Rice?" he says.

from Christian Science Monitor: 'Where the Wild Things Are' author Sendak wrote to 'communicate profound truths'
then Christian Science Monitor: Maurice Sendak: 10 tweets about the 'Wild' author and illustrator

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