Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Wild Things Are

Sendak intended for this picture book to explore how children use fantasy to deal with anxieties and fears, and it was quite controversial when first published. Adults wondered if the scary monsters were appropriate for reading with preschoolers. Obviously, these misgivings were overcome, and the book became enormously popular. Children and their parents loved young Max, a boy who vented his anger and his fury, yet calmly returned to his supper and to his family who "loved him best of all." By 1985 over 2 million copies of Where the Wild Things Are had been sold, and it has been translated into 13 different languages. Suggesting that the simplicity of the book is what made it successful, Sendak stated, "These are difficult times for children. Children need to be brave to survive what the world does to them" (www.factmonster.com/rpka/A0801320.html). In recognition of this book, and others he has written and illustrated, Sendak was chosen to deliver the May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture in 2003.

Livingston, Nancy, and Catherine Kurkjian. "Where the Wild Things are." The Reading Teacher, vol. 57, no. 1, 2003, pp. 101. ProQuest, https://www.lib.uwo.ca/cgi-bin/ezpauthn.cgi?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/203277138?accountid=15115.

Sendak, Maurica

HarperCollinsPublishers

1963, 1991, 2013

© 1963 by Maurice Sendak, © renewed 1991 by Maurice Sendak

Hardcover Book, 22.9 x 0.6 x 25.4 cm, 48 pages

English