In the forty years since Max first cried "Let the wild rumpus start," Maurice Sendak's classic picture book has become one of the most highly acclaimed and best-loved children's books of all time.?Now, in celebration of this special anniversary, introduce a new generation to Max's imaginative journey to where the wild things are.

Winner, 1964 Caldecott Medal
Notable Children's Books of 1940?1970 (ALA)
1981 Boston Globe?Horn Book Award for Illustration
1963, 1982 Fanfare Honor List (The Horn Book)
Best Illustrated Children's Books of 1963, 1982 (NYT)
A Reading Rainbow Selection
1964 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award
Children's Books of 1981 (Library of Congress)
1981 Children's Books (NY Public Library)
100 Books for Reading and Sharing 1988 (NY Public Library)

Where the Wild Things Are

FROM OUR EDITORS

Max is being so terrible that his mother sends him to his room without supper. But Max doesn't care -- he sails off to the land of the Wild Things, and they make him his king. There, Max can be as terrible as he pleases, and the Wild Things join in the rumpus. Finally, Max is tired of being wild, and yearns to go home. Marvelous pictures and the superb story combine to make this a quintessential picture book. In it, readers will recognize their own wild side.

ANNOTATION

A miniature version of Maurice Sendak's story about Max, a little boy who sails to the land of the Wild Things.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Max is sent to bed without supper and imagines sailing away to the land of Wild Things,where he is made king.

FROM THE CRITICS

SLJ

Each word has been carefully chosen and the simplicity of the language is quite deceptive.

Children's Literature - Mary Quattlebaum

Sendak presents an image of children not as sentimentalized little dears but as people coping with complex emotions such as anger, fear, frustration, wonder, and awareness of their own vulnerability. Max feels anger at his mother, acts out his aggression in a fantasy land as he becomes "king" of his wild and ungovernable forces, and returns hungry, sleepy, and peaceful to the real world, where his porridge is still hot. This is a well-earned and reassuring happy ending for all children wrestling with human nature's darker emotions. It is also available in Spanish.