Presto and Zesto in Limboland

In 1990, Maurice Sendak created 10 images for the performance of an orchestral suite of Czech nursery rhymes. Several years later, his friend and collaborator Yorinks (Company's Coming) proposed that they write a story to go with them. They knew that in order to knit the unrelated images together, they'd have to resort to extravagant narrative invention. They cast Presto and Zesto, their nicknames for each other, as the story's heroes and used Sendak's panels to represent the scenes Presto and Zesto encounter when they arrive, inadvertently, in Limboland: "They didn't mean to go there, who would go there, but they had a lot on their minds." Despite the artifice, the story hangs together remarkably well--or at least stays true to its own bonkers logic. A wild-eyed shepherd boy tells them about the wedding of the sugar beets, and the friends set off to find the village's only suitable wedding present--a set of bagpipes possessed by the monster Bumbo. Sendak's bold and hilarious artwork features apoplectic villagers, disgruntled barnyard animals, fire, sharp implements, and a proliferation of goats ("Everybody has goats in Limboland"). Yet it's not all shenanigans. Deep Sendakian emotions are at work: Bumbo is a fleshy, terrifying behemoth; the sugar beet bride wears a delicate white veil and a Mona Lisa smile. Narrating in unmistakable Brooklynese sprinkled with Yiddish ("He still owes us five bubkes"), the storytelling voice evokes a particular--even poignant--time and place. The images hold some of the irrational, dreamlike childhood fears that Sendak returned to throughout his life as an artist (a bear with scissors, a big man with an axe), but Yorinks's broad humor makes the menace as easy to push aside as a theater curtain. It's a joy to have another glimpse at Sendak's magic. Ages 5-up. (Sept.)

PreS-Gr 2--Humor and drama permeate this picaresque tale presented in loosely related episodes. An afterword by Yorinks describes the story's genesis (and exodus). Between 1925 and 1927, Czech composer Leos Janá ek composed Ríkadla, a choral piece inspired by both the charm of indigent nursery rhymes and their interpretation by compatriot, illustrator Josef Lada. In 1990, the London Symphony Orchestra invited Sendak to create projections for Janá ek's music. Later, Yorinks and Sendak, who called each other Presto and Zesto, respectively, arranged the images and extemporized a connecting narrative featuring themselves searching for dessert and entering a strange realm. To escape, they must wrangle a present--bagpipes--from a devilish monster for the nuptials of two sugar beets, a lovely concluding scene with echoes of Caldecott. The narration combines nursery talk ("With a diddly-dee and a hippity-ho...") with kibitzing and kvetching: "Have you noticed...that you just can't get good cake anymore...?" The manuscript for this flight of fancy was forgotten until recently. Ridiculous situations, silly expressions, and discrepancy between text and image add wit: ."..Presto and Zesto tippy-toed away and soon came upon a family thoroughly enjoying the fresh air." The page turn portrays an intimidating father chopping bread with an ax, a mother avoiding eye contact, and a boy pulling on a goat while eyeing another upside-down in the pond. The compositions are informed by Lada, but the style is unmistakable. VERDICT Fresh Sendak art, a preposterous climax in which Presto's torn pants reveal his buttocks, and cake--what's not to like?--Wendy Lukehart, District of Columbia Public Library