_cover.jpg) First edition cover | |
| Author | Maurice Sendak |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Maurice Sendak |
| Cover artist | Maurice Sendak |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children'spicture book |
| Publisher | Harper & Row |
Publication date | November 13, 1963[1] |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (wide-format hardcover) |
| Pages | 40 |
| ISBN | 0-06-025492-0 (25th anniversary ed., 1988) |
| OCLC | 225496 |
| LC Class | PZ7.S47 Wh[2] |
Where the Wild Things Are is a 1963children'spicture book written and illustrated by American author and illustrator,Maurice Sendak, originally published in hardcover byHarper & Row. The book has been adapted into other media several times, including an animated short film in 1973 (with an updated version in 1988); a1980 opera; and a live-action2009 feature-film adaptation. The book had sold over 19 million copies worldwide as of 2009, with 10 million of those being in the United States.[3]
Sendak won the annualCaldecott Medal from the children's librarians in 1964, recognizingWhere the Wild Things Are as the previous year's "most distinguished American picture book for children".[4] It was voted the number one picture book in a 2012 survey ofSchool Library Journal readers, not for the first time.[5]
The story focuses on a young boy named Max who, after dressing in hiswolf suit, wreaks such havoc through his household that he is sent to bed without his supper. Max's bedroom transforms into a jungle environment, and he winds up sailing to an island inhabited by monsters, called the Wild Things. The Wild Things try to scare Max, but to no avail. After stopping and intimidating the creatures, Max is hailed as the king of the Wild Things and enjoys a playful romp with his subjects. Finally, Max stops them and sends them to bed without their supper. However, to the Wild Things' dismay, he starts to feel lonely and decides toabdicate and return home. The creatures do not want Max to go and throw themselves into fits of rage as he calmly sails away home. Upon returning to his bedroom, Max discovers a hot supper waiting for him.
Sendak began his career as anillustrator, but by the mid-1950s, Sendak had started writing and illustrating his own books.[6] In 1956, he published his first book for which he was the sole author,Kenny's Window (1956). Soon after, Sendak began work on another solo effort. The story was supposed to be that of a child who, after a tantrum, is punished in his room and decides to escape to the place that gives the book its title, the "land of wild horses".[6] Shortly before starting the illustrations, Sendak realized that he did not know how to draw horses and, at the suggestion of his editor, changed the wild horses to the more ambiguous "Wild Things", a term inspired by theYiddish expression "vilde chaya" ("wild animals"), used to indicate boisterous children.[7]
Sendak replaced the horses with caricatures of his aunts and uncles, caricatures that he had originally drawn in his youth as an escape from their chaotic weekly visits, on Sunday afternoons, to his family's Brooklyn home. Sendak, as a child, had observed his relatives as being "all crazy – crazy faces and wild eyes", with blood-stained eyes and "big and yellow" teeth, who pinched his cheeks until they were red.[6][8][9] These relatives, like Sendak's parents, were poor Jewish immigrants from Poland, whose remaining family inNazi-occupied Europe were killed during theHolocaust while Sendak was in his early teens. As a child, he saw them as "grotesques".[9][10]
When working on the 1983opera adaptation of the book withOliver Knussen, Sendak gave the monsters the names of his relatives: Tzippy, Moishe, Aaron, Emile, and Bernard.[11]
In Selma G. Lanes's bookThe Art of Maurice Sendak, Sendak discussesWhere the Wild Things Are along with his other booksIn the Night Kitchen andOutside Over There as atrilogy centered on children's growth, survival, and fury.[12][13] He indicated that the three books are "all variations on the same theme: how children master various feelings – danger, boredom, fear, frustration, jealousy – and manage to come to grips with the realities of their lives".[12] Fundamental to Sendak's work for over fifty years is his trust in the validity of children's emotions.[14]
Dr. Kara Keeling and Dr. Scott Pollard, both English professors, assess the role that food plays in the book, arguing that food is a metaphor for Max's mother's love based on the idea that Max comes home to a "still hot" supper, which suggests that his mother "loves him best".[15] Going along with this, Mary Pols ofTime magazine wrote that "[w]hat makes Sendak's book so compelling is its grounding effect: Max has a tantrum and in a flight of fancy visits his wild side, but he is pulled back by a belief in parental love to a supper 'still hot', balancing the seesaw of fear and comfort".[16]
Where the Wild Things Are is a story that shows children's resilience through their "spirit" and "pluck".[17] Max is able to stand up to the Wild Things with their "terrible teeth" and "terrible claws" using "the magic trick of staring into all their yellow eyes without blinking once".[17]
Professor Liam Heneghan describes Max's dream as one of mastering the wild, from which he also learns to master his "inner tumult".[18] It sets forth the unrestrained rowdiness of the Wild Things and enlightens the reader to the idea that one cannot live in the wild forever. In her words: "In this notion of wilderness, there is a heightened reminder that after our fill of wilderness, one can, or perhaps even should, return, replenished, to the comforts of home".[18] Heneghan concludes that "the overarching thought is an old one: a human engages with Wild Things and in so doing comes into accord with the world and gains a measure of self-mastery".[18]
Francis Spufford suggests thatWhere the Wild Things Are is "one of the very few picture books to make an entirely deliberate and beautiful use of the psychoanalytic story of anger".[19]New York Times film criticManohla Dargis noted that "there are different ways to read the wild things, through aFreudian orcolonialist prism, and probably as many ways to ruin this delicate story of a solitary child liberated by his imagination".[20] Based on a 2007 online poll, theNational Education Association listed the book as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children".[21] Five years later,School Library Journal sponsored a survey of readers which identifiedWhere the Wild Things Are as a top picture book.[5] Elizabeth Bird, the librarian from theNew York Public Library who conducted the survey, observed that there was little doubt that it would be voted number one and highlighted its designation by one reader as a watershed, "ushering in the modern age of picture books". Another critic called it "perfectly crafted, perfectly illustrated ... simply the epitome of a picture book" and noted that Sendak "rises above the rest in part because he is subversive". PresidentBarack Obama read it aloud for children who were attending theWhite House Easter Egg Roll in multiple years.[22]
New York Times writer Bruce Handy brought up the idea that "as a child myself, without benefit of personal insights subsequently gleaned from more than a decade of talk therapy, I had been left cold byWhere the Wild Things Are".[23] Deborah Stevenson, a writer forThe Horn Book Magazine, talks about the effects the book had on a child who "screamed, apparently not with delight, every timeWhere the Wild Things Are was read to him. It is quite possible for some young readers or listeners to be moved to alarm by a book, just as they can be moved to joy or excitement or boredom".[24] Sendak responded to this criticism in an interview, asking: "Did she hate her kid? Is that why she was tormenting her with this book?"[25]
Despite the book's popularity, Sendak refused to produce a sequel; four months before his death in 2012, he told comedianStephen Colbert that a sequel would be "the most boring idea imaginable".[26]Where the Wild Things Are was number four on the list of "Top Check Outs of all time" by the New York Public Library.[27]
An animated short adaptation which had taken five years to complete was released in 1973,[28] directed and animated byGene Deitch and produced at Krátký film,Prague, forWeston Woods. It had narration byAllen Swift and amusique concrète score composed by Deitch; an updated version, which featured a new musical score and narration both byPeter Schickele, was released in 1988. This revised version was featured in a Children's Circle video titledThe Maurice Sendak Library.
In the 1980s, Sendak worked with British composerOliver Knussen ona children's opera based upon the book.[11] The opera received its first (incomplete) performance inBrussels in 1980; the first complete performance of the final version was given by theGlyndebourne Touring Opera in London in 1984. This was followed by its first U.S. performance inSaint Paul, Minnesota, in 1985 and the New York City premiere byNew York City Opera in 1987. A concert performance was given atThe Proms in theRoyal Albert Hall in London in 2002.[29] A concert production was produced by New York City Opera in 2011.[30]
In 1981, the New England Dinosaur Dance Company turned the book into a dance piece with choreography by Toby Armour and music byEzra Sims.[31] The piece debuted at Boston'sWilbur Theatre on December 22, 1981.[32]
In 1983,Walt Disney Productions conducted a series of tests ofcomputer-generated imagery created byGlen Keane andJohn Lasseter using as their subjectWhere the Wild Things Are.[33]
In the late 1990s the characters appeared in a series of commercials forBellAtlantic.[34]
In 1999, Isadar released a solopiano musical composition titled "Where the Wild Things Are" which appeared on his albumActive Imagination, inspired by the Sendak book. The composition was revisited and re-recorded in 2012 on Isadar's album,Reconstructed, withGrammy winner and founder ofWindham Hill Records,William Ackerman, producing.[35]
In 2002, the BBC produced a radio adaptation of the book, as part of theirAn Abominable Bestiary series.
The2005Simpsons episode, "The Girl Who Slept Too Little", features a spoof ofWhere the Wild Things Are entitled "The Land of the Wild Beasts".
In 2006, the United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp of the book as part of the sheet of stamps "Favorite Children's Book Animals".[36]
A live-action film version of the book was released on October 16, 2009.[37] Directed bySpike Jonze and co-produced by Sendak, the film stars Max Records as Max and featuresCatherine Keener as his mother, withLauren Ambrose,Chris Cooper,Paul Dano,James Gandolfini,Catherine O'Hara andForest Whitaker providing the voices of the principal Wild Things. The soundtrack was written and produced byKaren O andCarter Burwell. The screenplay was adapted by Jonze in collaboration withDave Eggers, who also novelized the screenplay asThe Wild Things, published in 2009.
In 2012, indie rock quartetalt-J released the song "Breezeblocks", inspired in part by the book.[38] Alt-J keyboardist Gus Unger-Hamilton said the story and the song share similar ideas about parting with a loved one. "Breezeblocks" reached certifiedARIA Gold status in Australia.[39]
In 2016,Alessia Cara released her second single, "Wild Things", which charted at number fifty on theBillboard Hot 100. In an interview withABC News Radio, Cara stated she took inspiration fromWhere the Wild Things Are, saying "each 'Thing' represents an emotion and [the main character] kinda escapes into this world ... and that's kinda what I wanted to do".[40]
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| Preceded by | Caldecott Medal recipient 1964 | Succeeded by |
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