I Want to Paint My Bathroom Blue

by Ruth Krauss, Maurice Sendak (Illustrator)

Continuing a two-year program to bring back twenty-two Maurice Sendak treasures long out of print, our second season of publication highlights one of the most successful author-illustrator pairings of all time. A pioneer of great children's literature, Ruth Krausspublished more than thirty books for children during a career that spanned forty years. Krauss and Sendak collaborated on eight books, and we are delighted to reintroduce four of these gems in brand-new editions, together with a favorite Maurice Sendak picture book.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

24 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Ruth Ida Krauss was an American writer of children's books, including The Carrot Seed, and of theatrical poems for adult readers.

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 3 out of 5]

A child considers what colours he would paint his house if he were allowed to paint it how he liked. He would have all his friends to live there and have a horse upstairs, which is probably how most children would like it!

Nice watercolour and pencil illustrations.

Read on openlibrary.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm sorry so many reviewers did not enjoy this book, because it's one I love to give to families with new babies, and in more than one of those families, it has become a favorite. We all love its charm and fancy and pure joy. “I’ll make a house the kind I dream about not the kind I see…”

[Bekkah Riecke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book centers around the imagination of a child, so it seems like it might be fun to use to inspire creative writing. However, you could relate it to a math activity if you read the book and then have students make their "dream house" with shapes and then tell about it using directional words like next to or above. It would be a really fun activity for kindergarten students to work with that standard.

[Heila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this book is kind of weird (a random pink doorknob, a horse upstairs - all in an imaginary house), it appeals to something deep within that wants to make... And also takes you away, to what "could be," instead of real life. Creating a house of our own imagining, a world the way we think would be wonderful, and have special touches that we like in it are cool things to imagine. So it was rather transporting.

[Janet · Rating 1 out of 5]

it seems like the type of book i'd like, but it's just too cracked out for a kid's book. the ending? seriously.

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great surrealism from a personal favorite of mine, Ruth Krauss. Illustrated by Maurice Sendak before he developed his instantly recognizable art style.

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book reads like stream-of-consciousness from a two-year-old. Seriously. It just wanders around and jumps from topic to imaginary topic without any warning whatsoever. Transitions? Not so much. Conventions adhered to? Ummm...no. It's like listening to a highly imaginative kid who's had WAY too much sugar. So much sugar, in fact, that he must just fall asleep at the end. Wore himself out completely and just crashed, because the book just stops without warning. So while I can appreciate what this book is, I didn't like it at all. I'd only give it one star if basing on my enjoyment, but I'm tossing in one more star because it really does sound like a child...especially if you read the pages really, really fast. lol

[Juushika · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was caught off guard by the gentle escalation--this begins almost as a teaching text about childhood wants/limits, and unfolds into a dreamlike narrative about creativity; it's bigger, weirder, and more evocative than it seems, but is also hard to grasp, perhaps because the theme doesn't speak to me personally, but also due to that rambling, growing structure. (But I appreciate the gems like the playful, beautifully illustrated "doorknob/dearknob" panel.)

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creative story with artwork by Maurice Sendak.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

More Ruth Krauss! Give me more Ruth Krauss!!!

[Barbara Lovejoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fell in love with this book! The text is fun but it is the marvelous Maurice Sendak illustrations that won my heart.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am inclined to see this book as moving from the tangible to the abstract, from the scale of a single child in a single family to a broader world view on the human condition and humanity's influence on the world at large. Philip Nel in How to Draw the World: Harold and the Purple Crayon and the Making of a Children's Classic (2024) argues that it's both a single child's abstraction of the world from their own home experience to a child's ability to control their world, a la Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson (1955).

https://pussreboots.com/blog/2025/com...

Marginalized Home Labyrinth 666699

[Tony Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the first books I remember reading - or having read to me - in my early childhood, and it created such a strong impression that I went looking for it recently and was pleased to find it still available online. This is the story of a slightly rebellious young boy with a fantastic imagination, which very much reminds me of myself. Basically, "if only my mother would let me paint my bathroom blue", this is what I would create. By the end of the book, he's made an ocean out of his bathroom, bringing the wide world right into his house. With text by Ruth Krauss and illustrations by a young Maurice Sendak, this book encouraged me to be that boy, and I'm forever grateful for it.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.0 This strikes me as a handy early reader book more than a good storybook for reading to younger kids. There's no narrative or rhythm to the prose, which feels like a litany of vocabulary words - not very fun for the adult reader. It ends quite abruptly.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very weird story and not engaging for my 3 year old. Yuck.

[Cheryl]

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