Where the Wild Things Are
by Maurice Sendak
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Book Reviews of Where the Wild Things Are
Book Review: Not my favorite as a kid, but it still ranks up there.
Summary: 4 Stars
There are quite a few reviews listed that claim that this book glorifies being a snot-nosed brat. While yes, Max is every parent's nightmare at the beginning, and yes, he gets whisked off to this fantasy land with monsters, being bad is not glorified at all. Once he's "Where the Wild Things are," he uses the tried-and-true parent move of having a stearn staring contest (my mom did this w/ me, so that's why I assume it's a common parent move) w/ the other "wilds" to prove that he's boss. Then, as King (parent?), he has to control the wilds, which proves to be too much for Max to handle. Instead of sticking with them, the wilds that "love" him, Max leaves so he can go back to the "someone that loves him very much." The point: After being put in the role of leader and "parent," he realizes that even though he's been a total Crap to his mom, she has always been there for him and has never left him, unlike how he left the wilds. Also, he had to deal first hand with beings that acted the same way he acted towards his mother. Instead of being able to just leave Max, she has to stay with him (well...she's his mom...she should stay w/ him), and he realizes in the end that he's acted unfairly to his mom and decides to clean up his act. At least that's what I saw in the story the first time I read it when I was 5, and that's what I continue to see today, 15 years later.Book Review: Wild About Wild
Summary: 5 Stars
Maurice Sendak is one of those great children's book creators who could write and draw. He helped me dream as a young boy, and I should pay him credit for helping me imagine things today.
When I was little, I'd stare at the page long after my mother finished reading it to me. Sendak seemed to have found my creative pulse, as he drew me in to wonder about his world of pretend monsters. The monsters are not quite so terrible, and could be considered friendly.
Max and I are both boys, and it must ordinary for we boys to get in a terrific amount of trouble in the process of playing. I related to Max. He sounded like a real boy. I was never quite sure what a rumpus was, but I knew it sounded like a lot of fun.
The pictures are cool. There is a rich, full-of-flavor tension in the art. The expressions and poses of the characters come across as genuine.
Don't be fooled by the amazing pictures. You'll enjoy the carefully laid story just as much, and your child can close his eyes and imagine his own version.
A wonderful book. A classic. If you've got kids, or if you read to your family's or neighbor's kids, this is one book which will be dog-eared from numerous reads.
I fully recommend "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak.
Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com
Book Review: Speaks to the inner nature of a two-year-old boy
Summary: 5 Stars
My son had me read this so many times that within a week my husband and I could both recite the entire story from memory, which we had to do several times when he (my son) was still restless and fidgety after "lights out." He still pretends he's Max, or he pretends he's a Wild Thing and "shows his terrible claws". (We dramatize it as we read it.) He loves to read Max's part, and gleefully points his finger in the air and shouts "Let the wild rumpus start!"
One day when I dropped him off at daycare, as we sat in the kitchen area with crackers and juice, he listened to all his classmates running around and playing just out of eyesight, and said to me "I hear a wild rumpus!"
Books like this really spark the imagination, and it's just written so beautifully and simply.
There is also a wonderful version of this book on DVD with music written by Peter Shipley (also known as P.D.Q. Bach) and read by him as well. There's actually a number of stories on the DVD, and the great thing is you can choose just one story, and it's maybe 5 minutes long, and then it STOPS. So it's perfect to pop in when you need just a few more minutes in the morning to get your kid's lunch ready, and you don't have to tear them away from the TV. (Also perfect in the evening, because you can say "Just one more video, then up to bed.")
Book Review: A CLASSIC I HAVE LOVED SINCE I WAS THREE
Summary: 5 Stars
I can to this very day remember hearing this story in preschool and loving it. I loved Max, the central character. I thought he was so lucky to have a wolf suit and later, a crown.This charming classic is about a young boy named Max who runs around the house threatening to eat everybody up. He dons a wolf suit to complete his frightening image. Max's mother who has had enough of the boy's antics, remands him to his bedroom without dinner. Once alone, Max creates a wonderful fantasy about sailing far away, for a year and a day, to where the wild things are. The gently illustrated cast of wild things will serve to delight all ages. There is nothing frightening about these gentle beasts and they all bear strong familiar characteristics, e.g., one looks like a giant rooster and anther creature has a buffalo head. Max makes himself the star of this fantasy by crowning himself King of the Wildthings. Homesickness intrudes and Max tells the gentle beasts he has to return home. Using Max's threat, they vow to "eat him up, they love him so." Max stays tough and leaves the wildthings and heads home. Once safely ensconsed in his room, he finds dinner waiting.
It was still hot.
A nice welcoming for Max and a welcome treat for all ages. Even now, many years later, I still love this book.
Book Review: Let the wild rumpus start!
Summary: 5 Stars
So, let's get this straight: I'm 39, I'm an author, I have read Shakespeare, I have a blisteringly high IQ, and yet this book has consistently remained one of the three books I would take in regards to the silly question "If you were stranded on a desert island and were only allowed to bring three books, which three would they be?" Why?
Because, as Jareth, from another great tale, once said "if you turn it this way and that.." Do you understand yet?
It's a children's book because someone claimed it is and children do so love it. It is a very adult book, full of wise counsel, full of lurking madness and mayhem, showing off, in simple wording, the dangers of the world outside our windows. It is endearing and enrapturing.
People will tell you that it's good for building character and it's probably true. They will tell you that there are lessons to be learned inside and of this I am certain.
Don't buy it for those reasons, dear ladies and gentlemen, because those reasons are the by-product of the truth. The truth is that this book is cunningly crafted, absolute, genius in form and function, in line and in text. Buy it, because you'll want to read it so many times that, if you should opt to check it out from the library instead, you are bound to make the librarian cross.