Where the Wild Things Are Written by Mauice Sendak

Sendak, M.  (1963). Where the wild things are.  United States.  Harper Collins Publishers.
ISBN: 0060254920

Where The Wild Things Are
A fantasy story about a young boy using his imagination to make the time pass when he finds himself in trouble for talking back and misbehaving. Max has to face the consequences for misbehaving by being sent to his room without supper. His imagination runs wild as his mother has called him. He travels to a land where Wild Things rules but are controlled by Max because he is the wildest thing one they have encounter and becomes King. He returns home when he smells food. Where is it coming from?

Critical Analysis
This book may be appealing to some due to the conflict with both Max and his Mother. It shows how he dealt with his anger. Despite the fact that he is still angry when he is sent to his room, Max does not continue his mischief. Instead, he gives free rein to his angry emotions through his fantasy, and then, comes to a decision that he will no longer let his anger separate him from those whom he loves and who love him.
Max is an engaging character. His actions, from chasing the dog to talking back to his mother are realistic. His emotions are also realistic. It's quite common for children to get angry and fantasize about what they could do if they ruled the world and then calm down and consider the consequences.

Reviews
Children's Classic Picture Books
Where the Wild Things Are is an excellent book. What makes it such an extraordinary book is the creative imagination of both Maurice Sendak the writer and Maurice Sendak the artist. The text and the artwork complement one another, moving the story along seamlessly. The transformation of Max's bedroom into a forest is a visual delight. Sendak's colored pen and ink illustrations in muted colors are both humorous and sometimes a little scary, reflecting both Max's imagination and his anger. The theme, conflict, and characters are ones with which readers of all ages can identify. I also know from personal experience that it is a book that children enjoy hearing again and again.

Good Reads
Where the Wild Things Are is one of those truly rare books that can be enjoyed equally by a child & a grown-up. If you disagree, then it's been too long since you've attended a wild rumpus. Max dons his wolf suit in pursuit of some mischief & gets sent to bed without supper. Fortuitously, a forest grows in his room, allowing his wild rampage to continue unimpaired. Sendak's color illustrations, perhaps his finest, are beautiful. Each turn of the page brings the discovery of a new wonder.
The wild things--with mismatched parts & giant eyes--manage somehow to be scary-looking without ever really being scary; at times they're downright hilarious. Sendak's defiantly run-on sentences--one of his trademarks--lend the perfect touch of stream of consciousness to the tale, which floats between the land of dreams & a child's imagination.
This Sendak classic is more fun than you've ever had in a wolf's suit, giggle-stiflingly funny at times, & even manages to reaffirm the notion that there's no place like home.

ALA
The criticism directed at the charming Where The Wild Things Are is scatter shot and bizarre.  Most people I’ve talked to about it can’t really elaborate on why they find it inappropriate.  They just do.  Yes, I’m generalizing, but I’m not being less precise than someone saying “It’s bad because it’s bad.”
A boy  named Max throws a hissy fit and his parents send him to bed without supper.  He then travels to a crazy island where he meets the Wild Things. Obviously, many millions of children have loved “Where the Wild Things Are” — there are more than 19 million copies in print around the world — but I was struck, while conducting an extremely informal survey of a couple of dozen friends and a few professionals in the field of children’s literature, by how many said Sendak’s work had eluded their younger selves and/or their own offspring. Which kids’ books, I had wanted to know, are appreciated more in theory, or by adults, than by actual kids?
“Impenetrable,” one educator and critic said. In her view, while the book was written from a child’s perspective, it had the processed feel of “something arrived at years later as a construct to understand the writer’s own anger.” Actually, I think that’s what I now like about the book, that sense of self-aware struggle — and whiff of psychoanalysis. Sendak hinted at this in a 1966 interview with the New Yorker: “It’s only after the act of writing the book that, as an adult, I can see what has happened, and talk about fantasy as catharsis, about Max acting out his anger as he fights to grow. . . . For me, the book was a personal exorcism. It went deeper into my own childhood than anything I’ve done before.”
Max shouldn’t feel bad about the snubs — divided audiences are a good thing. And he’s in fine company. Other revered works flagged by people I spoke to were the “Alice in Wonderland” books (too druggy, too much knotty wordplay; Alice herself is a drip), “Winnie-the-Pooh” (too twee).
Bruce Handy, a frequent contributor to the Book Review



Activities
Elements of a Story “Where the Wild Things Are” by Deborah Szabo St. Joseph College Modification of a Reading lesson plan by Shelley Yamnitz Grade Level: K-2
LEARNING OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to identify passages that indicate setting, characters, problem (events), and solution in a story.
MATERIALS:
1. The book, “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak.
2. Several large sheets of paper, 2 each labeled; Characters, Setting, Problem, Events, Solution.
3. A monster shaped cut-out for each student. Printed on it will be “When I feel ________, I ________and then ___________.”
4. Optional: Emotions chart.
SET/INITIATION: Introduce the book to the children. Read the author and title. Show the cover and first few pages of the book. Ask the children what they think the story might be about.
LEARNING ACTIVITIES:
1. Read the book, inviting those students who may know it well to read along whenever they want to.
2. Ask, or suggest, if this is a “good story,” an “interesting story,” a “well-written story.” Explain that we will now look at the elements :or parts” of what makes up a good story.
3. Put up a large paper entitled “Setting,” explain that the setting is where and when the story takes place. Ask the students to tell the setting of the book. For each response refer back to the book saying “how does it tell us that?” and help the students remember a passage or a phrase. Write down what the students give you for the setting. Repeat the process for “Characters,” “Problem,” “Events” and “Solution.”
4. Tell the students that you’re going to leave the papers up, that it helps for our reading and writing to know what makes up a good story.
EVALUATION: Remind the students that Max was feeling wild and that caused a problem and some things to happen in the story. Ask what are some other ways we can feel? Refer to an emotions chart if necessary. Single out a response. Say- Could we take that feeling and make up a story like Mr. Sendak did? Ask – What do we need for a good story? When responses have included Setting, Characters, Problem, Events and Solution, begin with the second set of large paper with these titles, and brainstorm ideas for each. Write down everything the way the students say it. They can be quite “copycat” from Sendak, it doesn't take away from their comprehension.
CLOSURE: Ask again when Max was feeling wild, what did he do? (acted wild, yelled at his mother, wore his wolf suit, etc.) Have the students fill out their own bulletin board cut-out, a picture or shape stating: “When I Feel (emotion), I (action) and then (this happens).” They are putting together in a very simple way, the beginning elements of an original story. Either now, or when the bulletin board is up, you can individually ask students to come up with an idea for a solution. If you need a simpler activity, limit it to “when I feel wild, I ________”.
FOLLOW-UP: Depending on the grade level, you could either write together as a class the copycat story which you “mapped” with the students. Or each student could turn their emotion/action shape into a copycat story with he or she as the main character.

Sight Word Activity for Wild Things

Print the pocket.  Cut out and fold on the line.  Put glue along the inside, side edges and press into place making a pocket.   Print the sight words of your choice.  Have the children cut them apart.  As the "tame each wild thing" (read the sight word), have them place it in the pocket. 

Reasons for the challenges

• Max is sent to bed without supper.  Some people have found this to be unacceptably cruel

• Max throws a tantrum.  This sort of behavior was not tolerated Back In The Day–at least not Back In The Day when Where The Wild Things Are was written. For my part, one of my own characters in The Knot was inspired by Max.

• It gives children nightmares

• It has subversive psychoanalytic overtones (undertones?)

The Verdict

These are the sorts of erratic statement expected to heard from people wearing those hats with the buckles on them.  But since this is not the era of the Mayflower, it is time for cooler heads to prevail. As usual: everybody settle down.
Sadly, this is the case with many banned books…if not most.  Where The Wild Things Are stirs the imagination of anyone who looks at it, whether they know it or not.
Stifling the imagination is unhealthy  Banning books stifles the imagination.  Connect the dots and then go read this wonderful story.

after more the 50 years, what keeps Where the Wild Things Are popular is not the impact of the book on the field of children's literature, it is the impact of the story and the illustrations on young readers. The plot of the book is based on the fantasy (and real) consequences of a little boy's mischief. One night Max dresses up in his wolf suit and does all kinds of things he shouldn't, like chasing the dog with a fork. His mother scolds him and calls him a "WILD THING!" Max is so mad he shouts back, "I'LL EAT YOU UP!" As a result, his mother sends him to his bedroom without any supper.

Links to Elementary-Age Lesson Plans

• (Preschool-Grade 2) Where the Wild Things Are: A Literature Unit by Emily Ellis
• Where the Wild Things Are Multidisciplinary Lesson Plan by Pam Powers: Hotchalk
• (K-2) Elements of a Story Using Where the Wild Things Are by Deborah Szabo
• (K-2, 6-8) Public Broadcasting System's American Masters Series: Maurice Sendak, Art and Imagination