RaveThe Washington PostCott has returned to Sendak and produced a biography that uses Outside Over There as the key to this great artist’s life and work. Cott has chosen his focus wisely…Outside Over There is a brilliant picture book composed of masterly illustrations and a deep, gnomic story … As for what Outside Over There means, it is important to know that Sendak was involved for years in psychoanalysis and described this book as ‘the excavation of my soul.’ As the title of Cott’s book suggests, ‘there’s a mystery there’ … Cott urges on his interlocutors with his own keen insights, and he quotes from Rumi, James Baldwin and dozens of others. Even for someone such as me, who has written about and taught Outside Over There for decades, new insights poured in so fast I sometimes had to put the book down and catch my breath.
