My earliest childhood memories are filled with images from Where the Wild Things Are, and though I didn't own a wolf suit, and despite being a girl, I pretended I was Max, telling my mom "I'll eat you up!", chasing the cat around the house with a fork and spending too much time in my room waiting impatiently for a forest to sprout up around me. While I never got that lucky, the Tampa Museum of Art gives me a chance to revisit Maurice Sendak's whimsical realm of mischief-loving monsters through 144 drawings, poster artwork, and theatrical sets and costumes from opera and ballet performances in Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak. The reading room — which resembles Max's bedroom mid-transformation — will be my first stop. Jan. 29-April 23, 600 N. Ashley Drive, Tampa, $8 adults/$6 seniors/$3 students, children and military personnel, 813-274-8130, www.tampamuseum.com.
This article appears in Jan 25-31, 2006.
