- Where the Wild Things Are
- Written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak
- Published by Harper & Row (now Harper Collins), 1963
- Caldecott Medal winner, 1964
Children don’t seem to mind when a story leads them to dark places, just as long as it eventually leads them back out. In its time, this book raised a rumpus while adults arrived at the same understanding.
In 1989 Sendak himself reminisced for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch “Wild Things ran into a lot of trouble when it was published. It was considered ugly. It was considered far-fetched. It was considered too frightening to children.” Critics pounced on the rudeness of the main character, Max, to his mother. They also condemned her yelling back at him and sending him to bed without supper.
Even that supper aroused controversy before the book’s release, during the three years it took to complete the pictures and ten sentences of text. Sendak recalls that he and the publishers argued over the last word, “hot”, which they equated with “burn”, and feared would suggest Max could be injured by his own supper.
As I child, I thought the book fascinating – creepy, but fascinating. I read it in a corner every time I visited the library, long after my poor mother tired of checking it out for me. I loved that Max could tame the wild things by staring them down, which always suggested to me that I could do impossible things too, if I felt like it.
Now, I think of Where the Wild Things Are as a model for a successful picture book. The text and illustrations support one another beautifully. The story draws in children with its authenticity. It hooks adults, who after all must be intrigued enough by kids’ books to purchase and read them aloud. And after 40 years in print, you can still walk into any book store with a children’s department and buy a copy.
