Where The Wild Things Are By Maurice Sendak

This Book can be Summarized in a few ways, depending on your perspective. To me, this is a story of a boy learning the balance between friendship and family, the life lesson of knowing when its play time and when it’s time to listen. The boy gets punished after an unwelcomed comment made to his mother, and is sent to his room. In his room he escapes into his imagination. His room turns into a forest, and he takes a trip to a monster filled island, and becomes King. Eventually, after playing to his heart’s content, the boy decides he would rather be with his mother, and returns home. I believe, this book offers many insights and morals. One is that we can all be viewed as a monster by someone we love, we can all be perceived as monsters at …show more content…
Where the Wild Things Are was first published in 1963. Sendak based his drawings of the monsters in this book, or “wild things,” on the obnoxious relatives who visited his family for Sunday dinners when he was a child (History.com Staff, 2012). It was a revolutionary book for its time, in that it pioneered a new perspective for children’s books. It was a realistic depiction of childhood anxieties and rebellious behavior, at a time when children’s books presented a perfect version of life and obedience (History.com Staff, 2012). According to Maurice Sendak, and needless to say, in 1963, this book was not well received by the public, due to its contrary spin on that decade’s clichés. Maurice Sendak has written or illustrated over 100 books in his lifetime, as well-designed productions for operas, plays, and ballets (History.com Staff, 2012). He was influential in the world of children’s books; however, he says, he did not set out to write for children. Maurice is quoted saying “I don’t write for children. I write—and somebody says, ‘That’s for children!” (History.com Staff, …show more content…
Maurice described his own childhood as unhappy. He was sickly and because of that had to spend much of his early life indoors (Biography.com Editors, 2014). He also spent much of his young life mourning the loss of, and haunted by the tragedy of, some of his family members deaths during the Holocaust (History.com Staff, 2012). He became the writer and illustrator we all know and love, after a serendipitous introduction to Ursula Nordstom (History.com Staff, 2012). Ursula was a renowned book editor, who was well known for her work with Shel Silverstein, E.B. White, and others (Biography.com Editors, 2014). He was introduced to her at his work. He worked as a window display designer at FAO Schwarz, after he graduated High School (Biography.com Editors, 2014). He was well respected, and considered a revolutionary in children’s illustration for his time (History.com Staff, 2012). He died at 83, due to stroke complications. He was proceeded in death by his partner of more than 50 years, Eugene Glynn (History.com Staff,