IF the life of Maurice Sendak were a Maurice Sendak picture book , it would open with a busy two-page spread , done in the dark , crosshatched style he has sometimes used , of a sickly , unhappy Brooklyn childhood : brooding parents , a World War II recruiting poster , a scary image of Hitler and , over in the corner , a pair of burglars scuttling away with the Lindbergh baby -- an image that haunted Mr. Sendak in his early years .