Is it possible to be so sad about the death of someone that you didn’t really know? Do we know someone through their writings? Their blogging?

Peter D. Sieruta has died. He was a kindred spirit. Even though I am not a book collector, I read his blog, Collecting Children’s Books. I didn’t read it for information about rare first editions or the probable market value of a volume. It was because I have had many an “Aha! moment” as I read with pleasure and reminiscenced  about books that I  loved.

Blogs like Fuse #8 and Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast have commented on Peter’s wicked sense of humor. I particilarly appreciated his “inside baseball” children’s lit April Fools posting that claimed Neil Gaiman was under consideration to be stripped of his Newbery Prize. His Hornbook parody of Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom (Harper, 2000) is flawless.

How sadly appropriate that his final posts were about Maurice Sendak.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 30th, 2012 at 10:55 am and is filed under Childrens and YA, Deaths. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.