My wife works at a daycare and they recently filtered the book “Where the wild things are” by Maurice Sendak.
The reason for the filter was because the story scared the children.
My question is… what is wrong with this book?
Is it that scary? I’ve read it and sounds like a great book about conquering fears…
My wife was told that there is some psychological aspect to the book.
Like some journey psychologically…
To me… it’s a children’s book.
I guess I’m not good at finding themes and such…
My recollection is like yours. I don’t recall anything in the book that would traumatize a kid.
Don’t people still play ‘monster’ with kids? “RAWRRR!! I’m gon gitchYU!” I suppose that’s abuse. The kids get to take their turn at being the monster and chasing the adult around too. If you play it right.
(Please forgive if I mess up the details. I blame my faulty memory on a traumatic childhood.)
In the book the kid (Max?) is punished for pretending to be a monster. At first his mom had encouraged him, making him a suit, but I guess Max just wouldn’t give it a rest. So, off to bed without supper.
When Max meets the Wild Things, he seems to instinctively know that their threats are all bluster. He blusters back so well that they make him king. Max and monsters all play together, have fun, etc. until Max gets homesick and sails back to mom. I guess he finally got tired of playing monster.
The only psychological themes I can find are:
It’s not exactly Orpheus descending into Hades.
I have fond memories of this book, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.
Sounds to me like some people are just a LITTLE too uptight about things. They need to loosen up.
Perhaps more fiber in their diet.
This is honestly one of my favorite works of literature of all time. I believe I have it memorized for the most part, and if I didn’t feel it was a copyright infringement, I could reproduce the entire story here.
"The night Max wore his wolf suit he made mischief of one kind…
and another…
and another."
Yes!!! In my ADULT analysis, there is a psychological aspect. After Max is sent to bed without his supper, he has a psychotic break with reality!
"That night in Max’s room a forest grew…
And grew…
and grew…"
Until his room disappears and his walls and celing become the world all around.
Dang, Max must have been REALLY hungry for his supper. Or he’s simply lost touch with reality due to his anger at his mother.
In any case, in spite of any ADULT notions that this is a story of psychological trauma, what it REALLY is is a magical fantasy story about what happens to a brilliant child with a vivid imagination. More than that, this story is rendered in BRILLIANT illustrations that adults around the world covet.
For the record, Sendak claims to have modeled the “wild things” after his aunts and uncles who would come to visit as a child pinch his cheeks HARD, proclaiming, “You’re so cute I could just EAT YOU UP.” Thus…
“Oh please don’t go, we’ll eat you up we love you so.”
Perhaps this is why this book is so beloved to children…they relate at some level to these characters.
It is my (very loudmouthed, I admit) opinion that this should be MANDATORY reading for children rather than being banned. It’s brilliant. In addition, any conflict of any type in this story is warmly resolved when Max returns from taming the Wild Things (he is the king of all wild things and tells them all what to do, by the way) and finds his room as he left it, and his dinner waiting for him.
“And it was still hot.”
God. If anyone knows where I can find a signed first edition, I’d pay a LOT for it.
The same type of idiots censor and ban Sendaks other work, such as “Max in the Night Kitchen” because Max is naked. MORONS, I tell you!
“And now,” cried Max, “Let the Wild Rumpus Start!” That used to be my sig line…
Woo hoo!!
This actually doesn’t surprise me that much since we’re talking kids of daycare age. True, it’s an awesome read for when they’re a tad older but the pictures do depict some pretty scary monsters. I think it might have kinda gotton to me as well when I was a young’un.
Just another putrid example of the left-leaning politically correct feel-good educators hard at work trying to re-engineer society.
I have a three year old who loves this book, and has enjoyed it for over a year.
Because one kid somewhere found the book scary the PC elite will try to remove it from society at large.
The shame of it all.
Hey Bwana. BITE ME !
Where the Wild Things Are has been subjected to banning since it first came out in 1963. The reasons vary from it being too frightening for children to the books supposedly anti-christian witchcraft and supernatural elements.
Before you go sliming up GQ with ill informed partisan HOOEY, how about taking the time to learn something about that which you speak.
I remember it with fondness from my youth - what a bunch of sissy little kids if they were scared. 
Sorry Squink if I hit a nerve but any time I hear of books being banned I lose my cool. Unfortunately book banning tends to be mostly politically motivated (both sides of the aisle are guilty on that front).
I guess I went to an untainted school district because I was 4 when the book came out and I had access to it and, like my son now, I enjoyed it too!
I remember when we got this book. I was a little concerned because the illustrations seemed a bit scary for pre-schoolers. However, it didn’t bother my kids a bit. They loved it. My guess is someone in the “system” has forgotten what it was like to be a kid.
That was the book that taught me how to read. I found a copy a few years ago and bought it. I still enjoy it. My son loved it when he read it.
My theory is that people today forget what they read and saw on TV when they were little and figure they will solve all kid problems by banning stuff. Makes you wonder. If they were so traumatized as a child by such things, are they in the capacity to dictate what kids today see? If so, are the kids who weren’t traumatized back then… psycho?
Clowns scare kids more than almost anything, but Parents still drag children along to circuses at every chance they get. But a funky harmless book that these same parents enjoyed when they were kids, that gets banned.
Sheesh!
Okey-doke Bwana. 
Just as long as we’re clear that fringe elements from all over the political map really get off on trying to enforce their literary tastes on everyone else.
BwanaBob and Squink keep the political snipes and insults out of this forum (and Cafe Society where this is headed).
Since this is about a literature, I’ll move it to Cafe Society.
DrMatrix - GQ Moderator
I was thinking something along these lines too. I mean, have you seen the NEWS lately? Considered what kids deal with in their HOMES? If I were a parent, I wouldn’t let my children have access to everything on the bookshelf at any age…I mean, some guidance is nice and a ten-year-old probably shouldn’t be reading erotica (IMHO). But if people truly want to make things less scary for their children, they might start with things that actually change the kids’ environments, rather than limiting their literary education.
But it is true…aside from not letting them have porn, there probably isn’t a lot else I would personally limit…so maybe this is just my own private soap box.
My kids adore this book–even though they’re 7 and 11 now, we still drag this one out to read some nights because it’s nostalgic for them (jeez, can you be nostalgic at 7?) But then again, my 7 yr. old just loved Coraline when we read it recently–so maybe my kids are just a little weird.
I am 49 and have been teaching preschool for more than half my life.
I’ve always (thank goodness) been in a school which was just fine with reading “Where the Wild Things Are.” (I well remember the big stink over Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen, which featured a portrayal of a tiny penis.)
Where the Wild Things Are is about reveling in the wild rumpus of life, and about confronting and conquering fear.
“We’ll eat you up, we love you so.”
"But Max said “‘No.’”
I’ll take one Sendak book over a zilliion Berenstain Bears. More importantly, I’ll bet any preschooler would do the same.
I LOVED this book as a kid, and still find it very fun, especially the artwork. I drew worse things than these monsters when I was the age of reading it, and I can’t possibly see where all the fear of this book comes from. Hell, grandparents scare children more at that age (unless they’re the kind that always give candy…nothing with candy is scary). Sure, there may be some big political issues involved here, but the reasoning that this story is too scary for little children is a real pisser of an excuse to ban the book.
Reminds me of those people that want the Webster’s Dictionary banned from schools because it has “asshole” in it.
A charming, charming book. My son and daughter loved it – especially my son – and I read it to them from age 2. Never scared them.
This was the first book I bought for my son. He loves it and was never scared by it. I think it has a really good message - that even though a child’s anger can take them away to where wild things are (and turn them into a wild thing), that the mother’s love will still be there when they return.
Or something like that, I’m not overly verbose this morning.