Where the Wild Things Are
by Maurice Sendak
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Read in January, 1979
recommends it for:
Delusional miscreants.
I have no doubt that this book damaged me, psychologically, as a small child. It is one of the earliest books I vividly remember reading aloud to myself, and I remember the first time my mother read it to me before she put me to bed. Here's the gist of the plot: A little boy named Max dresses up in a wolf costume, plays with a hammer, chases his dog with a fork, then threatens to cannibalize his mother. His mother, a master of irony, then puts him to bed with no dinner. Already, this story shoul...more
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Read in June, 1972
I lived in Richmond,Kentucky when I was a kid. It was a sweet, semi-rural upbringing where a six year old could walk up the street with his little poodle dog (that would be me and mine) and visit a kindly elderly couple that would only allow the dog on their couch when the dog had just been washed. Somehow the dog knew this and was always ready to take that walk up the street after it had been bathed. Weird, I know. It was also the kind of small town where people who read the New Yorker were...more
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Read in October, 1983
recommends it for:
saturn's children
I know that many people hate this book because they seem to be above the story line, but this book is a classic. I mean since the day I first read it, I have not been able to put it down. I would keep a dog eared copy in my locker at school, perched so that when I opened the door, it would fall to my feet. I would pick it up, and say "Max, yeah, I can relate..." cause I knew if I sulked enough, the girl would pity me, and i'd get laid.
It's about a disenfranchised kid, our modern da...more
It's about a disenfranchised kid, our modern da...more
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Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak is a fantastic children's book all about using your imagination.
The book is about a child (main character; Max) who is being punished by his mother for making mischief and is sent to his room. Max wears a wolf costume that shows off his "wild side." Alone, his room then turns into a forest from his imagination and Max takes a trip to the land of Wild Things.
There he finds and befriends a fearless group of monsters. However, he t...more
The book is about a child (main character; Max) who is being punished by his mother for making mischief and is sent to his room. Max wears a wolf costume that shows off his "wild side." Alone, his room then turns into a forest from his imagination and Max takes a trip to the land of Wild Things.
There he finds and befriends a fearless group of monsters. However, he t...more
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The classic. I would take this on a desert island. So much to explore and interpret in the words and the pictures. I'm afraid my girls don't like the book as much as I do. But sooner or later, they'll come around.
I see quite a few people complaining about Max being a little shit and not learning a lesson in "Where the Wild Things Are." Well, guess what, a lot of kids are little shits. And I believe Max did learn a few things on his journey. Sometimes it's not so good to be the king...more
I see quite a few people complaining about Max being a little shit and not learning a lesson in "Where the Wild Things Are." Well, guess what, a lot of kids are little shits. And I believe Max did learn a few things on his journey. Sometimes it's not so good to be the king...more
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Read in January, 2008
This classic, ever-loved story of Max, the ‘wild thing’, transports children (and adults) to an imaginary wonder-lust of forests, lovable monsters, and childhood imagination. Banished to his room for his wild antics, Max conjures up a place where only his mind's eye can take him. Seen through Max’s eyes, his room becomes a place where he is ‘king of all wild things’. The illustrations eventually overtake the pages of the book, as Max becomes the ruler of this wild kingdom. But, alas, ...more
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recommends it for:
fans of the author, young kids
i can not recall the first time i read this childrens book...or more likely, i can't recall the first time i had this book read to me. all i know is that for years the line "oh please don't go. we'll eat you up, we love you so." stayed with me. i think it scared me as a child, which is probably why i liked it so much.
it wasn't until i was older that i rediscovered this classic story. a child i was looking after had taken it out from the library and i immediately read it to the bot...more
it wasn't until i was older that i rediscovered this classic story. a child i was looking after had taken it out from the library and i immediately read it to the bot...more
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Read in January, 1986
recommends it for:
Everyone
I loved this book as a child and just last year my (then) 5 year old son bought it home from school as one of his weekly library books! Just to sit down with him and read it thru then listen to my daughter read it thru with him was amazing....to think this book was around (probably) for a long time before I could read and now its being read by my children and being loved just as much! Lets hope this is one story that will be around when it comes time for my grandchildren to be starting school an...more
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Hands-down this is my favorite childhood book. As a child prone to small fits of anger, I always resonated with this story on a visceral level--shout at your mother, refuse to eat your supper, sail away to a magic forest, dance with the monsters, and return safely home again to realize that you are still loved? I felt deeply affirmed by this message.
Now, unfortunately, my dear, dear, childhood book has been ruined by graduate school education and I read an entirely different story about col...more
Now, unfortunately, my dear, dear, childhood book has been ruined by graduate school education and I read an entirely different story about col...more
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Read in March, 2008
Still one of the best children's books around.
I read this to my sons again the other night and they love it. My eight-year-old saying, as I finished, "This was his imagination, right? He wasn't really with the wild things."
The story is so simple that the reader/listener can follow but interpret and add to it in their own imagination. The artwork, truly classic, captures the right amount of a child's imagination ... making the wild things creepy and scary ... and yet not quit...more
I read this to my sons again the other night and they love it. My eight-year-old saying, as I finished, "This was his imagination, right? He wasn't really with the wild things."
The story is so simple that the reader/listener can follow but interpret and add to it in their own imagination. The artwork, truly classic, captures the right amount of a child's imagination ... making the wild things creepy and scary ... and yet not quit...more
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Read in January, 1978
I don't really remember, so lets turn to Wikipedia, sha'll we?
The book tells the story of Max, who one evening plays around his home, "making mischief" in a wolf costume (chasing the dog with a fork, etc.). As punishment, his mother sends him to bed without supper. In his room, a mysterious, wild forest grows out of his imagination, and Max journeys to the land of the Wild Things. They are fearsome-looking monsters, but Max conquers them with a scary look and he is made the King of...more
The book tells the story of Max, who one evening plays around his home, "making mischief" in a wolf costume (chasing the dog with a fork, etc.). As punishment, his mother sends him to bed without supper. In his room, a mysterious, wild forest grows out of his imagination, and Max journeys to the land of the Wild Things. They are fearsome-looking monsters, but Max conquers them with a scary look and he is made the King of...more
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Read in January, 1978
recommends it for:
whoever has an imagination
I didn't read this book as a child, my mother not being the sort of woman to encourage her children to be wild things. However, when I accidentally burned down part of my dorm room in college, my roommate, a good sort who put up with the smell of melted plastic for weeks thereafter, presented me with a copy to make me feel better (mind you, I had to deal with housing administration etc.) Max and I were buds from then on.
My children, all wild things without encouragement from me, have grown...more
My children, all wild things without encouragement from me, have grown...more
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Max, the main character of this book, influenced me so much that I spent the majority of my childhood coming home and trying to explain why I got another "white slip" from my teacher. I have but one regret, I wish I had gotten more. After all, three white slips meant a trip to Principal Burger's office. We called her Principal Hamburger when she wasn't looking. Principal Booger was also a favorite. She always got mad and said, "Who said that?" We'd play dumb and look around a...more
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I am a little bit slow and so was astounded and happy when a lover of this book suggested it deftly dealt with child tantrum, anger, and emotion on a metaphorical level. Typical of the little-person experience is failure to rein in emotion or know how to deal with it constructively. What a delightful spin on an already quirky, imaginative tale. As an aside, The Washington Ballet company annually performs Septime Weber's wonderful interpretation of this tale; if you're in the area, check it out w...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommended to Oona by:
my mom
Do you remember how good this book is? I have been reading it to my students because they love monsters.
When the wild things "bare their terrible claws and gnash their terrible teeth and roll their terrible eyes and roar their terrible roars" my students do it too. Max tames them with his magic trick of looking into their eyes. They dance a wild rumpus and then Max grows tired of them and sails across years and nights and days and into his bedroom, where his dinner is waiting...more
When the wild things "bare their terrible claws and gnash their terrible teeth and roll their terrible eyes and roar their terrible roars" my students do it too. Max tames them with his magic trick of looking into their eyes. They dance a wild rumpus and then Max grows tired of them and sails across years and nights and days and into his bedroom, where his dinner is waiting...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
everyone!
The first, and most accessible, of Sendak's dream trilogy. I read this to Nell as an experiment. I thought she might like being just a teensy bit scared, and she did! She loves this book, and totally connected her little Max doll with the Max in the book. She doesn't care for In The Night Kitchen, and is too young for Outside, Over There, but this story is a favorite, which we often pair with The Gunniwolf. She also likes to tell everyone to "Be Till!" (she drops her s-es.)
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recommends it for:
everyone
This book easily would have a rating of five stars if I rated it before I began raising children. Having recently enjoyed having my eight year old read this book to me, however, I realized I have gotten so bad that I think Max should have his wildness hindered. HOW INSANE IS THAT? I so need a vacation. But the art is beyond wonderful, some of the most easily recognizable worldwide, I'm sure. And Max does come to his senses in the end. God, I hope I come to mine. :)
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I don't know how this became a "classic" children's book, frankly. You have a horrible brat of a kid that gets to go on an adventure after being sent to his room. Even that part of the story doesn't have that much going on in it. There's some good prose in the middle, but I think it's overrated. Check out John Lithgow's Micawber for a great story and prose!
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So I was walking around on Monroe Street in Madison the other day with an 11 year old kid that I'm tutoring waiting for the library to open, and we stopped in this ratty little bookstore for a second. They had mostly crappy books, but then I looked at the display case and they were selling an action figure of the hairy monsters from Where the Wild Things Are for 19.95. That was spectacular. I still left the store, though, and didn't buy anything there.
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recommended to Michelle by:
matt
recommends it for: Everyone
recommends it for: Everyone
My favorite book as a kid. Despite popular belief, it's not about nothing! A little boy gets in trouble and lets his imagination take hold while he's in 'time out' in his room. In his imagination/dream? he gets to be in charge of the wild things, and finds that he needs to maintain control just like his mom did with him. He decides it's time to calm down and when he 'wakes up' he finds that his mom is the one who loves him 'best of all'.
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