Where+the+Wild+Things+Are

**__Where the Wild Things Are__** **By Maurice Sendak**   **Bibliographical Information** ISBN-13: 9780590032407 Publisher: Harper & Row Publication Year: 1963 Age Range: 3 - 5 years

**Summary** Max is a little boy who is sent to his room without dinner one night because of his bad behavior. As he sits in his room he sees a forest begins to grow, taking over his entire room. Then an ocean appears and Max takes off on a private boat to “where the wild things are”. Max lets his imagination carry him away as he sails and sails until he comes to an island. When Max arrives on their island he is able to instantly take command of these creatures with the help of a magic trick, and becomes their king. Max and the wild things dance and jump around until Max commands them to stop and go to bed without dinner. He begins to get homesick and yearns to be with someone who loves him. Even though the wild things beg and plead with him to stay, Max leaves and sails back to his room to find his dinner waiting for him.

**Book Review** It is easy to see how //Where the Wild Things Are// won a Caldecott Medal; the pictures in the book are extremely detailed and drawn beautifully. The size and quantity of the illustrations heavily outweigh the actual words on the pages, but I think that feature makes it a perfect book for young children who are just learning to read. The book also portrays the idea of unconditional love. In the beginning Max’s bad behavior gets him sent to bed without dinner, yet when he returns from his adventure with the wild things his dinner is waiting for him, still hot. Young children are often getting into trouble with their parents and are too young to understand that it will not diminish their parents’ love. This book demonstrates that when they do get in trouble, their parents are still going to love them. I think that this is a great book that can relay important messages to its young readers.

**Author Bio** Maurice Sendak had a hard childhood due to health problems, leaving him bedridden for quite some time. Nevertheless, he aspired to become an illustrator at the age of twelve after seeing Disney’s //Fantasia//. By the end of the 1950s he had composed close to fifty illustrated children’s books. Sendak was unlike most of his contemporaries in that he thought the illustrations of a book should add to its mystery. The many works he has written and/or illustrated span over fifty years, many of which were some of the most popular books of their time. When Sendak wrote and illustrated //Where the Wild Things Are//, he became recognized internationally.

**Analysis of Literary Element** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">One literary element that undoubtedly stands out in this book is the illustrations. The vast amount of pictures allows children to exercise their imaginations and add their own twist to the story. For example, in the middle of the story there are three full pages of nothing but illustrations. This gives children the chance to use the vivid, detailed pictures to come up with their own story for these pages. It is so important to let children read and use materials that will exercise and promote their creativity at a young age, rather than using things that may stifle it.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The pictures in this book also make it a great tool to use in a preschool and even a kindergarten classroom. This would be a great book to use to help children practice and expand their vocabulary of descriptive words. The words in the story tell the reader what is happening but the author leaves it up to the reader to utilize the pictures as a tool to find out other information, such as descriptions of the characters and places. It would also be a good book to use when explaining the differences between reality and fantasy, as nearly everything that happens in the story could never happen in real life.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The illustrations and the book in general may be more appealing to boys, as it has the elements of adventure and types of characters that boys would enjoy more than girls. Nevertheless, I think that the drawings are captivating enough so that both boys and girls would enjoy reading it, whether at home or in the classroom.