In the Night Kitchen

In the Night Kitchen

4.1 of 5 stars 4.10  ·  rating details  ·  7,378 ratings  ·  392 reviews
1971 Caldecott Honor Book
Notable Children's Books of 1940--1970 (ALA)
Best Books of 1970 (SLJ)
Outstanding Children's Books of 1970 (NYT)
Best Illustrated Children's Books of 1970 (NYT)
Children's Books of 1970 (Library of Congress)
Carey-Thomas Award 1971--Honor Citation
Brooklyn Art Books for Children 1973, 1975
Hardcover, 40 pages
Published January 18th 1996 by HarperCollins (first published January 1st 1970)
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Architeuthis


I have a confession to make, goodreads. You might want to sit down.













































I've been seeing other literary social cataloguing websites.

No, wait, put that plate down. It wasn't because I really wanted to see anyone else. . . it was for my grade. *dodges plate* Wait, wait, let me explain! The thing is, I'm doing a big project on book reviews.

I'm analyzing the rhetorical differences between online book reviews and those published in print.

From meta-reviews to highly negative reviews, to reviews that are...more
Ronyell
Revised Review:

“In the Night Kitchen” is a follow-up of Maurice Sendak’s famous children’s book, “Where the Wild Things Are” and has also received the distinguished Caldecott Honor Book Award. “In the Night Kitchen” is also one of the most controversial books in history due to many images of Mickey being naked during his dream trip to the Night Kitchen. This book details the adventures of a small boy named Mickey who journeys to the Night Kitchen and meets three unusual cooks and eventually save...more
Sally
Any time a book has polarizing reviews, I'm interested as to why. This being a kids' book made me more interested. Seems one issue was the little boy's nekkedness.

That was not an issue for me at all. Kids like being naked. We all have strange dreams. (This book is the little boy's dream.)

What really weirded me out was the three fat bakers. They were creepy. I guess this confirms that I'm not a huge Maurice Sendak fan.... ;)
Maria
This is an other book I feel like I had on tape. Then again, maybe it's just that the words have a very strong rhythm, like a chant, that makes me feel like I had it on tape. Anyway, the story is pretty surreal form the beginning; a little boy falls out of his bed and out of his clothes (to this day I am still surprised that Senak chose to use full frontal nudity throughout the story) and into a wild city where huge household products and food containers replace the buildings in the skyline. I a...more
Miloš & Brontë
Brontë: My favourite part was that he finded a way to get out of there, and he gone to sleep is my favourite, favourite, favourite one. And, um, and I love that there was a cake for everyone in the morning. And I like that he had a banana...just kidding...[giggles:]banana slice[more giggles:]. And I love that he got the milk for the bakers. That was really nice. And I love that he really had a piece of the cake. If he did in the real story.

Papa: What do you mean the "real story"?

Brontë: I mean t...more
Amy Musser
One night little Mickey falls asleep and into a fantastical dream. He falls out of bed, out of his clothes, through the house and into the night kitchen. There he finds three musical bakers who think Mickey is milk and try to stir and make, scrape and bake him into a delicious Mickey-cake to eat for breakfast in the morn. Fortunately, Mickey escapes becoming a cake and makes an airplane out of bread dough instead. Flying in his doughy contraption he is able to retrieve milk from a giant milk bot...more
Kaia James
“In the Night Kitchen” is a follow-up of Maurice Sendak’s famous children’s book, Where The Wild Things Are and has also received the distinguished Caldecott Honor Book Award. “In the Night Kitchen” is also one of the most controversial books in history due to many images of Mickey being naked during his dream trip to the Night Kitchen. This book details the adventures of a small boy named Mickey who journeys to the Night Kitchen and meets three unusual cooks and eventually saves the day for eve...more
Shawn Thrasher
I don't remember reading Where the Wild Things Are as a kid, but I do remember reading - or at least looking at - In the Night Kitchen. I'm sure it was because of the naked kid; I probably hunched over it with a group of other shocked and giggling kids (I remember doing the same thing with Gnomes in fifth grade because a gnome was peeing). Going back to In the Night Kitchen thirty-some years later, that's about the only thing I remembered. Whatever I thought it was about back then I don't know,...more
Briar Rose
I remember reading In the Night Kitchen when I was a kid. It wasn't a favourite of mine, but Maurice Sendak's books have a way of sticking in the mind. I don't think it's his best book - it certainly doesn't offer much for the adult reader like Where the Wild Things Are does. Even Sendak's illustrations don't have the same crazy wild strangeness that they usually do. Although kids might find it fun, and it's got that interesting dream reality thing going on that Sendak enjoys so much.

After readi...more
Bridgette Redman
It never hurts to have a bit of the bizarre in your life. Even if you're only two years old. Thankfully there are people such as Maurice Sendak who writes books that quietly warp our minds, shielding us from the danger of growing up dullards.

Sadly, I did not discover In the Night Kitchen as a child. It was only a few days ago at our library's bag sale that I picked up a coffee-stained worn copy of Sendak's creation. Then tonight I discovered it anew in pristine condition at the local Barnes and...more
Caroline
Why are we constantly embarrassed by our own bodies? This book is highly controversial because the main character is depicted nude. Many children grow up with low self-esteem and body-image issues because from the time we are reading them these children's books we are subconsciously telling them that their body is wrong or indecent. That is not to say that we should all go around naked, however I think many people are too concerned with nudity.
That aside, this book is very interesting Maurice S...more
Christen
When nighttime noises wake a boy named Mickey, he falls out of his clothes and into the night kitchen. The three bakers stir Mickey into some cake batter after they mistake him for milk. He pops out of the baking cake and fashions a plane for himself out of bread dough to retrieve real milk from the Milky Way. Then he returns cake-free and dry to his bed. Children will be drawn to the repetition and rhyme and fun compound phrases, such as Mickey-cake. The clever and imaginative illustrations suc...more
Christen
When nighttime noises wake a boy named Mickey, he falls out of his clothes and into the night kitchen. The three bakers stir Mickey into some cake batter after they mistake him for milk. He pops out of the baking cake and fashions a plane for himself out of bread dough to retrieve real milk from the Milky Way. Then he returns cake-free and dry to his bed. Children will be drawn to the repetition and rhyme and fun compound phrases, such as Mickey-cake. The clever and imaginative illustrations suc...more
Caris
Here is where I go off about censorship.

Where do you get the right, motherfuckers, to alter someone else’s work just because it doesn’t meet your rigid little view of decency? Are we not all naked under our clothes? Must we really be ashamed to see ourselves as we naturally occur?

Children do not mind being naked. We teach them that it is wrong. We teach them this by drawing cute little black underpants on the young male protagonist of an iconic children’s book. We teach children that their nake...more
Matt
In the Night Kitchen: written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak
The second of two books illustrated by the same artist
Recommended for grades Kindergarten- 2nd grade
I really enjoyed reading this book. Sendak’s illustrations and text reflect what an imaginative artist he is. He is able to get into the mind of a child and put it to paper as well as any author can. I gave this a 5 because it takes the reader on a great journey and it allows the reader to incorporate their imagination.
“In the Night...more
Heidi
Uh, well, I tried to be grown-up and open-minded, but I (like some others) was a little surprised that Sendak would illustrate full frontal nudity. More than once. And of a child. So naked children are a bit more common in public than adults (whether intended or not). That still doesn't mean it's right. At least in this society. And in my opinion. So, I found it slightly unsettling, even in trying to put it in the context of a child's dream.

That aside, I didn't like the story either. The child...more
3Dyneisha
There are at least 100 and more books that are banned in the United States. Books of all kinds are being prohibited from schools and some libraries. But what’s the reason? Why are they being banned? Should books even be allowed to be banned? These are all questions that need answers.
I think books should not be banned. All subjects no matter how realistic they are should be allowed to be printed and exposed to the world. Reading books that covers certain topics can teach us how to look at the w...more
Cuong Truong
WIDER READING FOCUS: Cooking/Fantasy/Giving instructions

Let your imagination run wild as you follow Mickey’s adventures from the comfort of his bed to the fantasy world of baking bread. Mickey is mistakenly used as an ingredient to bake a gigantic cake, but fortunately is able to escape and rectifies the problem by going in search of the missing ingredients. We follow him in this comic strip style book, which for some reason all the text is in uppercase.
It might intrigue you to know this book wa...more
Alessandra Kelley
Never mind "Where the Wild Things Are," this was my favorite Maurice Sendak book ever when I was a child.

Mickey, Sendak's quintessential little boy, shouts about the noise as he's trying to sleep and falls out of bed and out of his pyjamas into the Night Kitchen. The kitchen is an incredible cityscape made out of old-fashioned (fictional) food packages, a loving homage in equal parts to Depression-era New York City and to ancient advertisements and food. Three giant chefs, all caricatures of Oli...more
Johncady
In The Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak follows the night time adventure of Mickey. It follows a very similar story arc to that of Where The Wild Things Are, and Mickey bares much resemblance to Max. Mickey falls through the floor into the "nigh kitchen" where the bakers are making a cake. He is accidentally cooked into the cake, but escapes. He uses his own creativity to construct an airplane out of dough, which is an expression of the creative power of the mind in dreams. He then helps the bake...more
Marcia
The story teaches how dreams are extensions of our imagination. It also teaches that people, such as bakers, work through the night while we are sleeping just so that we can have freshly baked cakes when we wake up!! : I did not immediately like this story. After reading it a few times, I realized the story was about a child’s use of imagination, something that we as adults don’t often use. Why did Mickey chose a bakery to dream about? Did he live above one and could smell the delicious aroma of...more
Heather
In the Night Kitchen, written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak, is one of the more controversial children's books out there. The main source of controversy stems from the fact that Mickey appears naked in several illustrations. Other sources of contention include allusions to the Holocaust, as Mickey is put into the oven by two mustachioed men, as well as what could be read as sexual connotations during the scenes where Mickey is swimming in a bottle of milk. The surface plot of the story is th...more
Winonah
This is the first and only book by Maurice Sendak I've read. Somehow I missed his other books, including Where the Wild Things Are. Sadly, I didn't read this as a child. It was prominently displayed in a local bookstore, catching my attention with the little boy's imaginative use of a measuring cup as a helmet. He makes a dreamy, almost out-of-bodyish visit to a bakery at night to see for himself how bread gets made. What makes it an exceptional story is that Mickey decides to help the bread get...more
Katie
My husband bought this book for me after I had listened to a recording of Maurice Sendak's remarkable interview from NPR's Fresh Air in 1993. In this interview, he talked with Terry Gross about how much it saddened him that In the Night Kitchen, his favorite work, is so often reduced to the conflict surrounding a little boy's penis. Our tendency to immediately treat sexuality in an accusatory or blame-worthy way, he said, does not speak well of our culture.

Maurice Sendak is one of my favorite au...more
Almeta
"When Mickey (who looks to be about three years old) enters the Night Kitchen, he loses his pajamas and is fully naked in some parts of the story. Critics object to Mickey's nudity which depicts not only his buttocks, but also his penis and testicles. Some also interpret sexual innuendo in the events, with the nudity, free-flowing milky fluids, and giant (allegedly phallic) milk bottle.... As a result, the book proved controversial in the United States on its release and has continued to be so....more
Vivian
This week's story times were inspired by Sendak's In the Night Kitchen.

The Madison Library District was one of 35 nationally-selected libraries chosen by the American Library Association to host a new traveling exhibition that explores the influence of Jewish culture and history in the work of renowned illustrator Maurice Sendak. The exhibit is an exploration of his illustrations and picture books, revealing connections between these iconic works and his childhood, family, and the popular cultu...more
Cindy Benabderrahman
Apr 19, 2009 Cindy Benabderrahman rated it 5 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: Aunts who read to their charming little nephews, people who imagine things
SUMMARY
Mickey wakes up in the middle of the night in a dream. He hears bumps and thumps, and he screams “QUIET DOWN THERE!” before falling out of bed, down past the moon and his parents bedroom, down through the floor and into a dreamscape of pots and pans and mixing bowls and sugar and baking supplies reminiscent of a city skyline at night, in the Night Kitchen. There, he finds himself getting mixed into a giant cake batter by giant Night Kitchen Chefs, who mistake him for ingredients. Mickey q...more
Christopher Clark
Mickey awakes from his sleep to pounding noises downstairs. He falls out of bed, out of his clothes, and into a cake that three bakers are making for morning. When they try to bake him, he jumps out, proclaiming that he’s not milk, and makes a plane out of dough to fetch milk for the bakers. He flies higher and higher, to the Milky Way, with a measuring cup, and pours down milk so the bakers can complete the cake. Finally, he slides down the jug and back into bed, all of it seeming to have been...more
Kelly
As children's books go, this is indeed a strange one.

Micky is a sleeping child who is awakened, and somehow transfereed to a magical 'night kitchen' sans his clothes (hence the controversy). The bakers there attempt to bake him into a cake, but covered in dough - Mickey just won't have it. He finds the bakers milk, and that is why (as the tale goes) we have cake in the morning.

I was confused a bit by this story. The atatomically correct Mickey didn't really bother me (though I couldn't quite gra...more
Melanie
Mickey hears thumping in the night and when he stands up to tell the noise to quite down he falls through the night, out of his clothes and into the Night Kitchen. In the Night Kitchen there are bakers who are baking the morning cake and need milk. When Mickey falls into the cake they think he is the milk. So they mix him into the batter and then put the cake into the oven. Thankfully Mickey gets out and tells the bakers that he is not milk. He begins to play with the bread dough until it is sha...more
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In the Night Kitchen (Paperback)
In the Night Kitchen (Paperback)
In The Night Kitchen
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In the Night Kitchen (Paperback)

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Maurice Bernard Sendak is an American writer and illustrator of children's literature who is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963. An elementary school (from kindergarten to grade five) in North Hollywood, California is named in his honor.

Sendak was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Polish-Jewish immigrant parents, and decided to become an illustrator after viewing Wal...more
More about Maurice Sendak...
Where the Wild Things Are Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months Pierre: A Cautionary Tale in Five Chapters and a Prologue Outside Over There Alligators All Around

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