Very possibly the first gift of books I ever received was Nutshell Library (Caldecott Collection) with its tiny collection of Sendak illustrated books –
Alligators All Around (An Alphabet)
Chicken Soup with Rice (A Book of Months)
One Was Johnny (A Counting Book)
Pierre (A Cautionary Tale)

The books survived long enough to be passed down to my first son but didn’t survive the second one but I have bought the collection as gifts for many a young family.

Colbert interviews Sendak who is every bit as lively, if not curmudgeonly, as I would expect from the author of Where the Wild Things Are to be.