Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life

Higglety pigglety pop!

The dog has eaten the mop!

The pig’s in a hurry

The cat’s in a flurry

Higglety pigglety pop!

From these lines of a Mother Goose nursery rhyme, Maurice Sendak has elaborated a modern fairy tale of multiple themes. Its comic surface is the tale of Jennie the Sealyham terrier, who packs her black leather bag with the gold buckles and goes out into the world to look for something more than everything. The World Mother Goose Theater is preparing a new production, and they are looking for a leading lady—but experience is needed.

The masterful pen and ink drawings transform Jennie’s story in a manner that is typically Sendakian. Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or There Must Be More to Life can be compared, in its complexity, humor, and depth of feeling, only with Sendak’s own Where the Wild Things Are.