Where the Wild Things Are

Sendak, Maurice. Where the Wild Things Are. Illustrated by Maurice Sendak. Harper & Row, 1963. 40 pages.

The children’s book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak transports its readers to another world so effortlessly, it almost seems to be a world the readers imagined themselves.

The story follows a boy named Max, who misbehaves and is sent to his room by his mother without dinner. Max then travels to a distant land where he becomes the king of a group of monsters, or wild things. Max is having the time of his life until he grows lonely and smells food from “across the world.” When Max arrives back in his bedroom, he is greeted by a warm supper.

“and they were frightened and called him the most wild thing of all and made him king of all wild things”

Sendak also illustrated the book, which is highly regarded for its surrealist style.

This refers to Sendak’s ability to create illustrations with a dreamlike quality through “unnatural or unexpected juxtapositions” (Horning 110). Sendak also uses great texture in his illustrations, which is part of what makes the book so memorable and appealing to children. Where the Wild Things Are raises multiple ethical and metaphysical philosophical questions about parental discipline and dreams. A child reading the book might wonder what the wild things are or why the mother still cooked Max dinner even though he was mean to her. As an adult one might wonder what the wild things represent or how a child should be disciplined. Where the Wild Things Are is an iconic children’s book that appeals to children’s imaginations and emphasizes the importance of the parent-child relationship.