Presto and Zesto in Limboland by Arthur Yorinks (review)

As a fascinating author's note explains, Sendak's illustrations here were originally used for projections in an opera performance in 1990, and later Yorinks and Sendak worked together to build a new story around them. The tale follows friends Presto and Zesto (avatars for Yorinks and Sendak themselves) on a nonsensical trip into Limboland, where the pals discover it's nearly time for the sugar beets' wedding. Feeling obliged to get a present, the two are piqued to discover a monster called Bumbo has the only possible present in town, so they head out to retrieve the gift, offer it to the couple, and enjoy wedding cake. The storytelling is rollicking and absurd; while it sometimes resembles a collection of vignettes, there's forward movement to counterbalance and lots of folksy asides. Sendak's familiar watercolors appear in decorous borders, one per spread; their energetic folktale action is thus slightly distanced, and the absence of Presto and Zesto from all save one scene suggests that this is the travelers' own tunnel-vision view of Limboland. The interest here therefore lies more in the telling and also in the amusing craftsmanship of splicing story onto picture after the fact, making this an intriguing work for introducing art as a writing prompt, or just as a spectacularly daffy readaloud. DS