Where the Wild Things Are

Sendak, M. (1963). Where the wild things are. New York, NY: Harper & Row.

            Sendak tells a story of a little boy with a very active imagination.  As the boy puts on his wolf costume one day, his is in a different state of mind and threatens to eat his mother as she calls him, “Wild thing!”  Through the illustrations, we see how Max’s imagination grows as he soon finds himself in a forest, and travels the ocean by boat.  Sendak uses the word “terrible” repeatedly when describing the creatures that Max encounters.  As frightening as they were, they were more frightened of Max.  When he wants them to stop their silly behavior, he sends them off to bed like his mother had done to him.  It isn’t long before Max finds himself back in his room with his warm supper waiting for him.

            The illustrations of the book give an idea of how big of an imagination Max really has.  We see a huge forest, with huge wild animals, and even then, Max is crowned king of the wild things.  There were also several two page spreads of illustrations without text that helped in telling the story. 

- Caldecott Award Winner