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    Where the Wild Things Are
    Where the Wild Things Are
    Where the Wild Things Are
    Audiobook12 minutes

    Where the Wild Things Are

    Written by Maurice Sendak

    Narrated by Peter Schickele

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Max is the hero of this beloved children's classic in which he makes mischief, sails away, tames the wild things and returns home for supper.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWeston Woods
    Release dateJan 1, 1989
    ISBN9780545836685
    Where the Wild Things Are
    Author

    Maurice Sendak

    Maurice Sendak’s books have sold over 50 million copies and have been translated into more than 40 languages. He received the 1964 Caldecott Medal for Where the Wild Things Are and is the creator of such classics as In the Night Kitchen, Outside Over There, Higglety Pigglety Pop!, and Nutshell Library. In 1970 he received the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal for Illustration, in 1983 he received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award from the American Library Association, and in 1996 he received a National Medal of Arts in recognition of his contribution to the arts in America. In 2003, Sendak received the first Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, an annual international prize for children’s literature established by the Swedish government.

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    Reviews for Where the Wild Things Are

    4.5/5

    625 ratings411 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Max gets in trouble with his mother and gets sent to his bedroom for the rest his night. He uses his imagination to go to a land where he is a king and continues with his romp. When he starts to feel home sick he returns home where a hot dinner is waiting for him.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Hands down, my favorite book across the board. Always fun to read. Especially in a fort.
    • 5/5
      Summary: When Max gets too wild, he's sent to bed without supper, when his room is transformed into a world where he sails to the land where the wild things are and becomes their king.
    • 4/5
      I watched the movie in my teens.
      Somehow, the overall vibe of this book is similar to Alice in Wonderland or Spirited Away.
      I love the cute ending here.
    • 5/5
      I just love this book. I can't wait to read it to my own little one.
    • 5/5
      What a cute little book. Definitely something I will be reading to my children.
    • 5/5
      Genre: Fantasy (fiction)How would I use this book? I would use this book as a read-aloud during reading time or before starting a lesson on imaginative writing. Summary: A boy named Alex is acting wild so he is sent to his room without dinner. He then finds himself in a boat floating to a land with wild things. The wild things make Max their king and they all celebrate. Although he liked being with the wild things he feels lonely so he decides to go back home. On his return he sees his food on the table of his room.
    • 4/5
      A fantasy book of a child who imagines going off into a magical world where monsters ruled. Max becomes part of their family until he realizes that he misses his own family that he left in reality. One of my favorite books when I was a girl and still reins true to this day.
    • 4/5
      Use your imagination. This can be used as a mentor text to help with writers workshop to help the children remember a time that they played make believe.
    • 5/5
      A marvelous adventure in imagination.
    • 5/5
      In my opinion, and I’m sure most people would agree, this was an excellent book. The illustrations are what I liked most about it. For example, as Max goes deeper into his imagination the pictures grow from being a part of the page to taking up the entire page. I like this because as the reader turns each page they can see how the imagination is growing. Also, I like how the illustrations foreshadow what is going to happen. This is apparent when Max has sheets and tents put in his room to represent the vines and trees when he goes to where the wild things are. Also the reader can see a picture Max drew of the Wild Things in his room before he enters their world. The illustrations also carry a dreamy feel to them; this draws the reader in to make them feel as though they are inside of Max’s imagination as well. Since the illustrations are so prominent throughout the book the text can be kept short. I the writing the author used. She kept the text engaging and well paced by only making it a few sentences, but because there were only a few words on each page the reader must continue to turn the page to keep the text rolling. The main theme or big idea that stems from this book are how anyone can get lost in imagination and create incredible new worlds through that imagination. Also I feel that a message was that it is acceptable to be different and think differently because it leads to amazing things.
    • 3/5
      I never had the chance to read and analyze this book. I had mixed feelings about it after I had read it for the first time. There are not many picture and children's books where I had to go back and read it more than once. This one I had. I did appreciate the organization of this book. I got the feeling that the author and illustrator wanted readers to see the monster-like characters to be happy and not intimidating. I say this because the monsters had sharp teeth, but were always smiling. I found this as a reader confusing because the text underneath read terrible and gave them scary-like descriptions. I liked how there were 2 pages without any text on them. I thought it clearly represented the leading to the turning point of the story and came across as the happiest moment in the story where the boy was dancing and enjoying the company of the monsters. The layout and size of the drawings on these 2 pages drew in the readers attention. Also, the run on sentences throughout made the reader keep reading and flipping pages, this tactic also kept me, as the reader, eager to read on. The big idea of this story wasn't clear to me. I think that the boy in the story wanted to escape reality and venture out in his imagination. His freedom to do so influences readers to create their own adventures and to not be intimidated by others who may seem scary, because they are sometimes not.
    • 4/5
      I love the illustrations of this book. Max’s personal boat had his name on it and all the monsters looked like they were smiling at him when he arrived. I liked how the monsters had people characteristics like human hair and a striped shirt. It makes it look like the monsters put on human suits like Max put on a monster suit. The colors are all kind of subdued to help visualize that it’s night and to help set the mood. The font goes to all caps and bolds when there is yelling to illustrate the raised voice. I would say that the theme of the book was about where your imagination can take you.
    • 3/5
      A picture book that follows the journey of a child searching for a place where the wild things are after being banished to his room for being a wild Thing. I was surprised how eager he is to escape getting in trouble but even as he progresses on his journey the pictures do not often see him truly happy, until the end of the book when he returns home to his family. This book is recommended for beginning readers who are in primary school; it could be read aloud by a parent or be used to help a child transition to reading on their own. The story itself is simple with repetition that would appeal to young readers but the visuals are the most stunning part of the book. This book is a Caldecott Award winner.
    • 4/5
      Where The Wild Things AreBy Maurice Sendak (1984)I liked Where The Wild Things Are for three reasons. First, I liked the pictures in the book. Specifically, the pictures get bigger as Max’s imagination grows. For instance, on the first page, the photo is small, and centered within the page. However, as Max enters his bedroom, the pictures become bigger, and soon fill the entire page. Second, I liked the number of words on each page. For example, on the first page there are thirteen words, but on the second page there are only two words. In my opinion, Sendak uses this as a crafting technique; I believe he wants his readers to focus primarily on the illustrations. Lastly, I liked the foreshadowing that exists within the photos. Specifically, on the first page, the illustration displays Max nailing a vine to the ceiling. The vine represents the forest where the wild things are. In addition, the second page shows a portrait of a monster hanging on a wall in Max’s home. Coincidently, the portrait represents an exact monster that exists in Max’s imagination. Thus, the vine and the portrait of the monster are objects that appear in Max’s mind. Overall, the “big idea” of Where The Wild Things Are is to help Max resolve his conflict with his mother. He achieves this by escaping to his imagination, and controlling the wild things. Thus, time alone settled Max’s emotions, and in time, he returned to eat his dinner.
    • 5/5
      This book has amazing illustrations. This book is about a young boy named Max, who, dressed in his wolf costume, runs around crazy throughout his household, is sent to his bedroom without eating. As he feels anger and gets mad at his mother, he goes to a place where a forest grows in his room and he sails to a place called the Wild Things. He ends up being king of the Wild Things. Max plays with the creatures and ends up returning home. As he walks into his room he finds a plate of hot food on his tray.
    • 4/5
      Book is about imagination and creation of another world.Good book to set ideas in children to use their imagination to make a world of their own.
    • 5/5
      This picture book is about a young and wild boy named Max who gets sent to bed without dinner because he told his mother he was going to eat her while dressed in a monster costume. In Max’s room (or his mind) a forest begins to grow and a ship appears that takes Max to a place where the wild things are. It is there that Max is confronted by the wild things that growl and roar and have big, scary eyes and claws, but Max says, “BE STILL!” and tames them with just a simple stare. Then, they name Max their king, but Max begins to feel lonely and he wishes to go back “to where someone loves him best of all,” which is when Max begins to smell his dinner and decides to sail back (waking up from his fantasy) to find his dinner waiting for him.I liked this book for a couple of reasons one of the biggest reasons was that I was always surprised that someone would try to make a picture book into a movie, but after reading the book I can now understand why they would pick this picture book to make into a movie. The reason is that the message of the story is perfect for all children. Also the illustrations in the book are very descriptive and fit perfectly to the story. That is what I liked about Where the Wild Things Are.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this book for a few reasons. First, I really enjoyed the illustrations in the book. They went into such detail, for example when the boys room was turning into the outdoors. When it first started changing, the ends of his bed turned into trees and the carpet began to change into grass, which I thought was really creative. I also enjoyed how the pictures became bigger and bigger as the boys imagination got more real, it was a really cool feature to the story. I also really enjoyed the writing in the book. Altough they were very long sentences, it kept me focused on the story and turning the pages quickly to find out what would happen next. Therefore, there were only a few words on each page, so this way the reader was kept engaged by wanted to see what happens on the next page. For example when the book on one page said the night max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and then one the next page said and another. This kept me wanting to turn the page to see what was the next part of the sentence. I think the overall message of this book was that even though sometimes kids want to get away, you always find your way back home and there is no place like home.
    • 5/5
      "Where the Wild Things Are," is a story of a misbehaving boy named Max whose imagination or dreams take him to a far off place "Where the Wild Things Are." Although I like the story overall and think it's very creative I don't exactly think it sends the best message to children in the beginning when it shows Max talking back to his parents and saying, "I'll eat you up!" After that however, I think it shows that anything can be done when you have an imagination. The author uses great illustrations to draw young readers into the story and weaves an imaginative tail of Max being king of all the wild things. Although the story is clearly fictional and could never really happen children will still appreciate the "monsterish" characters depicted throughout. The central message of the story is for children to let their imaginations run wild and that dreams should have no boundaries.
    • 4/5
      I liked this story. The illustrations of the forest and the monsters were detailed and this helped show the boy’s imagination. I also liked the illustrations starting small and growing larger and larger every time to show the child’s imagination and that he was daydreaming. Once he was no longer daydreaming, the pictures got smaller. The big idea of this story is that no matter how bad one wants to escape from home, he or she will always come back.
    • 5/5
      I loved the book, "Where the Wild Things Are," by Maurice Sendak. Firstly, I loved the illustrations of the book because they were well thought out. For example, the box that the picture is drawn inside of gets bigger as the pages go on, which is also as Max's imagination grows. I also like how there are pages with just illustrations and no words because it allows the reader to interpret their own meaning since the author is not dictating any scenario. Secondly, I liked the sentence structures in the story. For instance, many of the sentences were run-on sentences. This approach to the writing made the story feel like it was over a very long period of time considering the sentences took up multiple pages. I liked the feeling of time progressing because it made the story different from others. I also liked the big idea of the story. The big idea of the story is to have an imagination. Without an imagination, this book would not have been published and Max wouldn't have had the fun he did.
    • 1/5
      I was not a big fan of Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. The book just really did not appeal to me. Max is sent to bed because he is wreaking havoc on his household with a mask on. The illustrations are great. If it had to be in my library it would be for grades first through third.
    • 5/5
      Summary: This story is about a little boy named Max who got in trouble for causing mischief. Max got upset because he got sent to bed without his supper. While in his room, Max uses his imagination by turning his room into an island with a forest full of wild thing monsters. Max ends up being the king of the island controlling the way the wild things act. Max gets lonely after sending the wild things to bed. He then decides to go back home where someone loved him. Once he got home he found his supper in his room hat and ready to eat.Personal Experience: I can relate to this story because when I was a kid I used to always use my imagination and create magical places and characters. I would also create make-believe fairy tales. My children are always pretending to be certain characters and make-believe powers.Classroom Extensions: 1. I could have the students make up their own make believe characters and story. 2. I could have the students give a discription of what they think a "wild thing" should look like or be.
    • 5/5
      I would definitely recommend “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak. I liked this book for many reasons. First, I liked how this book addressed the idea of being punished for misbehaving. Even though Max is sent to bed without dinner, it is made clear in the book that his parents still love him. Second, I really liked the illustrations in this book. I especially liked how the illustrations show Max’s room turning into a forest. The illustrations of all the creatures were also very creative. Third, I like the language used in this book. It was very descriptive and gave the reader a good idea of what the vine-covered forest might look like. I like how this book is told in third-person because it provides an interesting/engaging perspective. This book included a lot of dialogue which I really liked because it kept the reader interested. The main message of this book is that home is where the heart is. When Max sends the monsters to bed, he realizes that it is now time to go back home because that is where he will always be loved.
    • 5/5
      I love this book.

      This was on my reading list in University, so that is when I first read it. I was deprived of an excellent story as a child.
    • 4/5
      This book is about a little boy named Max, who dresses in wolf costumes and causes trouble, and gets sent to his room for punishment. Max's bedroom later becomes a jungle, where he sells things known as "wild beasts". I never really got into this book, but it does have some good pictures. I would use this in my classroom was a science lesson over wild animals, and I would have my students make their own masks.
    • 5/5
      In my opinion, this is an amazing book. One of the main reasons why I enjoyed this book was because of how it was written. For example, when the book begins, the boxes on the pages, in which the illustrations are drawn inside, are drawn small. As the book goes on, and Max’s imagination continues to grow, the illustrations grow bigger too and the pages become more filled. I also thought this was an amazing book because the pictures in the beginning foreshadow the later parts of the story. For example, on the page where Max runs down the stairs, there’s a picture hanging on the wall of a monster, which shows up in the book later on. Also, I liked this book because it is different from others due to the sentences “run-on” for more than one page. One complete thought would be written across two pages. The big idea of this book was imagination and how children can shape their imagination to be anything they want.
    • 5/5
      Great performance of a classic story. My nephews eyes lit up as soon as it started. He loved it!
    • 5/5
      I had mixed feelings about Maurice Sendak's book, Where The Wild Things Are. I liked how the author paced his writing. Even though he used run-on sentences, I thought they were effective and appropriate, and they flowed very well. For example, he started stating the idea that something was growing on one page and then continued the idea on the next page; "and grew..." and then continued finally finished his idea on the following page. One thing I was not so sure that I liked was how his illustrations did not match his descriptions. The author described creatures that are wild, mean, and scary, but depicted them in his drawing as cuddly, cute, and happy. The creatures were very furry and soft looking, with rounded teeth, and big smiles on all the time. They were far from the demonic creatures he described. I think the point of this book is too encourage children to extend their imagination.