“And when he came to the place where the wild things are, they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth, and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws. Till Max said “BE STILL!” and tamed them with the magic trick of staring into all their yellow eyes without blinking once”.
What’s the Story?
Max gets into one kind of trouble after another until his mother declares he’s a “wild thing!”
“I’ll eat you up!” he cries.
So Max gets sent to bed without supper.
But wild things don’t stay put and Max sails across the sea, finds an island, becomes king of the Wild Things and hosts a Wild Rumpus.
But Wild Rumpuses are only fun for a while. Eventually, Max becomes lonely. So he returns home where there’s someone to love him.
Why is it Great?
Awarded the Caldecott medal in 1964, Where the Wild Things Are was recognized as the “most distinguished American picture book for children”. When Maurice Sendak’s masterpiece was criticized by some as being too frightening, he replied, “Where the Wild Things Are was not meant to please everybody – only children.”
Too often, children are confined to what adults consider “safe” but is actually constricting, boring, and even isolating.
First published in 1963, and still regarded as one of the greatest picture books ever written, Maurice Sendak’s powerful and wonderfully illustrated book is a fable of imagination, discovery, and parental love, one in which children are allowed to break free of the strict boundaries of the world of adults and experience the Wild Rumpus.
This is a story about the wildness of youth, taming your monsters, and coming back home to find your dinner still hot.
Where the Wild Things Are is an epic adventure in less than 350 words and 40 pages. Each word tells and each page surprises and delights.
It’s a book that captures “this inescapable fact of childhood,” says author Maurice Sendak—”the awful vulnerability of children and their struggle to make themselves king of all wild things”.
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