Where the Wild Things Are

by Maurice Sendak

book data

29,359 ratings, 4.51 average rating, 1,443 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		64%
4		24%
3		8%
2		1%
1		0%

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published

November 9th 1988 (first published 1963) by HarperCollins

binding

Hardcover, 48 pages

characters

Max

literary awards

Caldecott Medal 1964, Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, ALA Notable Book,

isbn

0060254920 (isbn13: 9780060254926)

description

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 ...more

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11/03/07

Nathan rated it:

(review of isbn 0099408392)

bookshelves: fiction

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 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 should start creeping you out. Then a forest starts to grow in Max's bedroom. And no, no chemicals have been ingested anywhere in the story. Though the bit about chasing the dog with the fork does imply a delusional state. Regardless, a fucking forest grows in the kids bedroom. So naturally he gets in a boat and sails off to the other side of the world, to where all these "wild things" are. And promptly subjugates everyone he sees. I'm a damn toddler, and my mom is reading me a book about a sociopath. So Max has a ball with this gang he's conquered and converted, and they howl at the moon and hop through trees. Then he gets hungry and goes home, where his mother, no doubt terrified of his new army of foreign creatures, has left his food for him, still warm. I thought, "This woman aims to do me harm." Yes, please, mother. Read me a story about my bedroom becoming a forest inhabited by monsters, then put me to bed. Think I slept that night? No, I hid out under my bed with a plastic baseball bat, a water gun and flashlight, hoping to God that if this was the night it all went wrong, I had the courage to look those monsters in the eye and pretend I wasn't wetting myself. I made a nest with a giant teddy bear and two pillows and didn't come out until the next morning, when I heard my mom coming down the hall. All day long I pretended nothing was different. But I asked her to read me Where The Wild Things Are again that night. And the next night. For months. I would ask her questions like "Do you think I will have my monsters get you if you don't make me supper?" And she'd smile, and say "Go to bed, Nathan." Spooky shit, I'm telling you. I learned to read through fear and intimidation. A subversive masterpiece.

NC(less)

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12 comments

03/26/08

Brad rated it:

(review of isbn 0099408392)

bookshelves: children, faves

Of all the books I read my kids, and there are many, this is my favourite to perform.

It is so easy to turn Where the Wild Things Are into a a big, rollicking tickle fest, and I am never able to resist the urge. When those Wild Things show up with their "terrible roars" and "terrible eyes" and "terrible claws," I attack my kids with everything I've got until they are reduced to quivering masses of giggled out jelly.

And Max, the King of the Wil...more

Like this review? yes (7 people liked it)

5 comments

08/16/07

fleegan rated it:

(review of isbn 0099408392)

bookshelves: uttercrap

This book is crap, and let me tell you why. The kid is a jerk and is sent to his room without supper. He proceeds to go to some magical place where these monsters live and he bosses them around and is mean to them. Then he gets back home...having not learned that being a mean jerk is wrong...and there on his table in his room is dinner...and it's still warm. What's the lesson here exactly?
Hate the book.

Like this review? yes (5 people liked it)

1 comment

06/08/08

Meg rated it:

(review of isbn 0370007727)

Read in January, 1986

recommended to Meg by: my mommy... who read it every night
recommends it for: EVERYONE (yes, even you adults)

Another 5 star! Man, I'm getting generous. You guys just keep bringing up stories that KICK TRASH! This is the greatest children's book in the history of time as far as I'm concerned. And I'll tell you something WICKED AWESOME about it that I figured out when I researched it for a play adaptation I wrote. **GET OUT THE COPY OF YOUR CHILDREN'S BOOK RIGHT NOW**... Flip through the pages, and notice that on the first page the artwork is a small rectangle... then it grows larger and larger on...more

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3 comments

02/15/08

G rated it:

(review of isbn 0099408392)

bookshelves: kids-books-that-don-t-make-me-yawn

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 ...more

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04/18/08

Gretchen rated it:

(review of isbn 0099408392)

Read in February, 2008

"The pictures in this one scared me. Maybe when I'm older, say 6 months old, I'll like it then!!"

That was then, now that I'm older and more mature (I am 6.5 months old now!!) I was able to read this book, with mommy's help. While the picture's are still daunting, I thoroughly enjoyed the story. This one may very well become one of my favorites.

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03/24/08

Havenisle rated it:

(review of isbn 0099408392)

This is where is all started. This tore down the walls in my imagination and let me run wild with the animals!!!

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12/21/07

Johnny G rated it:

(review of isbn 0099408392)

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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06/27/08

Maureen rated it:

(review of isbn 0099408392)

bookshelves: picture-books

"The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind..." These are probably the best 13 opening words ever written in the history of picture books.

Sendak is a master of brevity, telling poignant stories in less words than most of us use to talk about the weather. His approach to children's literature is honest and non condescending. He remembers what is was like to be a child, and through his storytelling reminds the rest of us how our perception of the world ...more

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08/17/08

Steve rated it:

(review of isbn 0099408392)

recommends it for: anyone

Perhaps if George Bush had chosen this as his favorite book instead of 'The Hungry Caterpillar,' then maybe his tenure in office would have been slightly different (it would have also been better for him to have chosen a book that had NOT been published simultaneous with his college years, as was the case with 'Caterpillar'; at least with 'Where The Wild Things Are,' we could have all at least PRETENDED that his mother read it to him..... but I digress).

Well, anyway, what more is the...more

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03/20/09

Troy rated it:

(review of isbn 0099408392)

Read in January, 1976

Is it wrong that this is still probably my favorite book?

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01/04/09

Jasmine rated it:

(review of isbn 0370007727)

bookshelves: own

recommends it for: everyone that's ever been a kid

i STILL have this book!

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03/26/09

Danny rated it:

(review of isbn 0099408392)

Incredible!!!!

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2 comments

03/25/09

Erica rated it:

(review of isbn 0099408392)

bookshelves: 2009, childhood

Read in March, 2009

recommended to Erica by: My mother
recommends it for: children

Maurice Sendak, in my opinion, struck oil when he created this children's story. Childhood memories can be shady or impossible to remember until you discover something that came directly from your childhood. Where the Wild Things Are has that magical power over me. Every time I hear of the book or see the familiar images I return to the age of six when I received my first (and only) copy of the book from my teacher as a Christmas present.

It was my favorite book as a child and one of...more Maurice Sendak, in my opinion, struck oil when he created this children's story. Childhood memories can be shady or impossible to remember until you discover something that came directly from your childhood. Where the Wild Things Are has that magical power over me. Every time I hear of the book or see the familiar images I return to the age of six when I received my first (and only) copy of the book from my teacher as a Christmas present.

It was my favorite book as a child and one of the first books I ever read on my own (obsessively). The story struck a cord in me and even now when I read it I remember what excited me so much.

While some children would be scared of the story I found it to be fantastic. The premises is that a little boy (Max) is sent to bed without any dinner because of his poor behavior. This immediately was seen as fantasy to my child eyes because I had never before been sent to bed without a meal. The idea was blasphemous and to me was impossible to occur! But I knew there were other kids who were bad and would get punished. I had just never thought that such a punishment could be no food. He stomps off into his room and it magically becomes a forest. I think this was my most favorite part of the book. I would look at the illustrations over and over again because I understood, in my child's mind, exactly how a bedroom could become a forest. I mean, my bedroom turned into a ship, Santa's sleigh, and forests all the time; why couldn't Max's room do the same?

He adventures off to the land where the wild things are. Monsters of sorts who are made up of different body parts from different animals. This scared me slightly as a child. While Max joyfully joined the wild things I would have paired them as the scary monsters in any of my playtimes. But seeing that Max didn't find them all that scary and they in turn seemed to worship Max I realized... maybe monsters aren't all that scary.

I'd love to say that this book enlightened me to believe that wild things who look scary might not actually be. It's not the outside that counts, blah blah. But they still kind of creeped me out and I still had plenty of monsters in my playtime moments.

But the book remained a classic in my mind. I would read it over and over. When I got older and was doing art project for school I recall making the wild things out of clay and even today I feel a soft happiness inside of me when I look over the colorful drawings and read the brief story. As a child it's a great story to loose yourself in and a wonderful start for a child to learn to read. As an adult it holds the warmth of nostalgia.(less)

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04/07/09

Siri Brown rated it:

(review of isbn 0061227404)

I have this book memorized...

The night Max wore his wolf suit.. and made mischief of one kind.. and another.. his mother called him, "Wild thing!" and max said "I'll eat you up" so he was sent to bed without eating anything. That very night, in Max's room, a forest grew, and grew, and grew until his ceiling hung with vines and the walls became the world all around. And an ocean tumbled by with a private boat for Max. And he sailed off, through night and day, i...more

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05/19/09

Brooks rated it:

(review of isbn 0099408392)

Read in May, 2009

I have vague recollections of reading this story at a very young age. As it is with books and TV shows of our youth, nostalgia has convinced me that this book is a pinnacle of children’s literature. I make no claims as to whether or not that thought is accurate, but the recent release of the theatrical trailer for the movie adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s tale caught my eye. First of all, the movie looks absolutely gorgeous, and I’m excited to see it as soon as I can (I’m not sure if I...more I have vague recollections of reading this story at a very young age. As it is with books and TV shows of our youth, nostalgia has convinced me that this book is a pinnacle of children’s literature. I make no claims as to whether or not that thought is accurate, but the recent release of the theatrical trailer for the movie adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s tale caught my eye. First of all, the movie looks absolutely gorgeous, and I’m excited to see it as soon as I can (I’m not sure if I will wear my wolf suit). Since it has to have been around 20 years since I read the book, I decided to revisit it.

The book is beautiful to look at, and still fun to read, and the great part about it is that it’s even more fun to act out – you can imagine me dancing about the room with all the Wild Things. I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting this part of my childhood, here’s hoping the movie is just as fun. The temptation is to ascribe all these high-arching themes to a children’s book, but that ends up sounding like a high school English class essay, so I’ll just say that there are parts of this book that resonate with me at this point in my life.

I’m currently a graduate student in the last few months of the journey toward a doctorate degree in organic chemistry. Chemistry is without a doubt what I want to do in my life, but there are days where graduate school has felt like a trek ‘over a year, in and out of weeks, through many, many days’. I’ve had unruly projects, untameable bosses, and ridiculous co-workers who have all made me want to make mischief of one kind and another. So I can empathize with Max’s troublemaker side. Unfortunately, no one has named me king of the chemistry lab yet so I have to continue to slog my way toward that Ph.D. [As a side note - there's going to be one hell of a 'wild rumpus' once I finish this degree.:]

But back to the book. Imagination is wonderful, and the pursuit of your dreams is something we are all entitled to, but when we tire of pursuing our wild fantasy, when our hobby/career/education has ceased consuming us (’We’ll eat you up, we love you so’), when we return to the real world, those of us who are the luckiest have someone waiting for us with a meal that is still hot.(less)

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12/29/07

Rick rated it:

(review of isbn 0099408392)

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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04/03/09

Cindy Kelly rated it:

(review of isbn 0099408392)

bookshelves: books-4-children, edu-543-lit-4-children-project

Read in November, 1984

recommended to Cindy by: Mrs. Carmella Scopel, my preschool teacher
recommends it for: People of all ages who love to explore

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

This book is absolutely charming. How could a book about a boy in a wolf suit be anything but?

SUMMARY
One night, “Max wears his wolf suit and makes mischief.” He chases his dog with a fork, tells his mother he is going to “eat [her:] up,” and is sent to his room without supper. There, a forest grows, and an ocean “tumble[s:] by,” and with it a private boat that takes Max to Where the Wild Things Are. Max is the Wildest Thing of all, and so they make him their King...more This book is absolutely charming. How could a book about a boy in a wolf suit be anything but?

SUMMARY
One night, “Max wears his wolf suit and makes mischief.” He chases his dog with a fork, tells his mother he is going to “eat [her:] up,” and is sent to his room without supper. There, a forest grows, and an ocean “tumble[s:] by,” and with it a private boat that takes Max to Where the Wild Things Are. Max is the Wildest Thing of all, and so they make him their King. After a Wild Rumpus celebration, Max sends the Wild Things off to bed without their supper, and finds that he is homesick. He gives up being King of the Wild Things, they say their terrible good-byes, and he sails his boat back home to his bedroom, where his supper is waiting for him, still hot.

CLASSROOM USAGE: Defining Inspiration
Students will explore concepts of inspiration by first looking up definitions of the word on the web and in dictionaries and in the glossaries of art books. Then they will examine the illustrations in Where the Wild Things Are and make connections between the characteristics of Sendak’s Wild Things and real-world animals or objects. Examples include scales like fishes, fur like Yaks, teeth like zippers, horns like bulls, claws like badgers, tails like raccoons, tails like lions, stripes like sweaters. Let students be as associative as they wish when coming up with comparisons, and then let them make up some on their own. For example, a child might say she thinks leaves like trees should be on a Wild Thing, or quills like a porcupine. Another might think a Wild Thing should have legs like a checker board. Let them let their imaginations run wild. Then provide them with the tools and supplies to make their Wild Things come to life: paper plates, glue, scissors, yarn, fun fur, felt, beads, string, fabric remnants, leaves, flower petals, construction paper, paint, etc. Have each child present his/her Wild Thing and describe the inspiration behind it.

(less)

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03/26/08

Kirjote rated it:

(review of isbn 0099408392)

I consider this one of the most perfect books ever written. I love the economy of text. No extra words. Nothing to bore me or make me yawn. you get in, enjoy a fantastic yarn, and get out. It's weird and quirky, but not self-consciously so. It's a little wicked and gently amusing, even poignant at times, but not cloying. perfection.

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1 comment

04/27/09

Samantha rated it:

(review of isbn 0099408392)

bookshelves: childrens-literature, picturebooks--young-

Read in April, 2009

The story of a rambunctious little boy whose wild imagination brings the reader into a world of strange and even wilder creatures. At the heart of the story, though, is the love shared between the boy and his mother, who despite punishing him for being naughty, does not let him go without a hot supper. As a child, I remember not being too fond of this book. I think I was never very interested in fantasy fiction, and the creatures of Sendak's creation were a little too strange, and perhaps a l...more

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