Picture Storybooks - Where The Wild Things Are

Author: Sendak, Maurice

Where the Wild Things Are is one of those truly rare books that can be enjoyed equally by a child and a grown-up. If you disagree, then it's been too long since you've attended a wild rumpus. Max dons his wolf suit in pursuit of some mischief and gets sent to bed without supper. Fortuitously, a forest grows in his room, allowing his wild rampage to continue unimpaired. Sendak's color illustrations (perhaps his finest) are beautiful, and each turn of the page brings the discovery of a new wonder.

The wild things--with their mismatched parts and giant eyes--manage somehow to be scary-looking without ever really being scary; at times they're downright hilarious. Sendak's defiantly run-on sentences--one of his trademarks--lend the perfect touch of stream of consciousness to the tale, which floats between the land of dreams and a child's imagination.

This Sendak classic is more fun than you've ever had in a wolf suit, and it manages to reaffirm the notion that there's no place like home.

SLJ.
"Each word has been carefully chosen and the simplicity of the language is quite deceptive." --This text refers to the hardcover edition of this title

H.
"The clearer reproductions of the original art are vibrant and luminous [in this edition]." --This text refers to the hardcover edition of this title

Synopsis
Max, a wild and naughty boy, is sent to bed without his supper by his exhausted mother. In his room, he imagines sailing far away to a land of Wild Things. Instead of eating him, the Wild Things make Max their king. Soon Max tires of this and sails home, only to find his supper, still hot, waiting for him. Caldecott Medal winner; ALA Notable Children's Book; New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book; Reading Rainbow Selection; The Horn Book Fanfare Honor List.

Synopsis
When Max dons his wolf suit, his imagination carries him to a land filled with lovable monsters. --This text refers to the library binding edition of this title

Synopsis
When Max dons his wolf suit, his imagination carries him to a land filled with lovable monsters.

About the Author
This 4-volume boxed set contains an alphabet book, a book of rhymes about each month, a counting book, and a cautionary tale all written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak. Includes the titles Alligators All Around, Chicken Soup with Rice, One Was Johnny, and Pierre. (Titles available separately in library and paperback editions.)

Notable Children's Books of 19401970 (ALA) --This text refers to the hardcover edition of this title

Annotation
A miniature version of Maurice Sendak's story about Max, a little boy who sails to the land of the Wild Things.

Description from The Reader's Catalog
Familiarity has tamed the Wild Things somewhat, but young readers are still likely to be startled by the curiously menacing monsters created out of a hodgepodge of mythical and real beasts.

Reviews
Sent to bed without supper after creating mischief one night, a boy named Max magically floats away on a boat to the land of wild things--horned monsters with yellow eyes, razor sharp teeth, and terrible claws. With a magic trick, Max becomes king of the wild things--and sets out to tame them and make them do as he pleases. But can he stay there forever? A 25th anniversary edition of the Caldecott Medal winner for most distinguished picture book. Color illus. All ages
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From Mary Quattlebaum - Children's Literature
Sendak presents an image of children not as sentimentalized little dears but as people coping with complex emotions such as anger, fear, frustration, wonder, and awareness of their own vulnerability. Max feels anger at his mother, acts out his aggression in a fantasy land as he becomes "king" of his wild and ungovernable forces, and returns hungry, sleepy, and peaceful to the real world, where his porridge is still hot. This is a well-earned and reassuring happy ending for all children wrestling with human nature's darker emotions. It is also available in Spanish.

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