School To Be Named In Honor Of Gravesend-Native Maurice Sendak… Unfortunately, It’s In Park Slope

The late, great Maurice Sendak is receiving a rare honor in his home borough, as the Department of Education has approved plans to name a new school after the legendary illustrator and children’s author.

Unfortunately, the school will be in Park Slope, miles away from his childhood home in Gravesend.

P.S. 118, which will open this fall on Fourth Avenue and Eighth Street, will be called the Maurice Sendak Community School, reports DNAinfo.

[Presumed principal Elizabeth Garraway] said the author’s imaginative spirit fits in with what she hopes to accomplish at P.S. 118, which will have a multicultural curriculum.

“We want to be a place where kids are flexible thinkers and they step outside of the box, and Maurice Sendak was known for his creativity,” Garraway said.

… Sendak’s estate was “elated” by the honor, and the DOE approved the name quickly, she said.

Born in 1928, Sendak spent his early years in Gravesend, living at 1717 West 6th Street. He attended David A. Boody Junior High School at 228 Avenue S before heading to Lafayette High School.

Last spring, following his death in Connecticut, Bensonhurst Bean (with the help of our readers) discovered two of his earliest published illustrations – both from those schools’ yearbooks.

(First ever published Maurice Sendak illustration in Lafayette High School?)
(Nope, this one from Boody is older.)