Max has had a wild afternoon nailing sheets to the wall and chasing the dog with a fork.
“Wild thing!” his mother calls him and sends him to bed without dinner.
The look on his face sums up his frustrated emotion, but what happens next, reveals how his imaginative mind deals with this situation.
The illustrations are exquisite as Max’s bedroom turns into a forest with an ocean nearby and a boat at the ready, on which he sails for over a year to a faraway place. Here he finds wild things, whose horns, claws and sharp teeth look very frightening.
And when he came to the place where the wild things are
they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth
With the words “Be still!” and some magic, Max tames the wildness and becomes king of all wild things.
After a fun play, the wild things have gone to bed and Max feels lonely. His nose detects a delicious dinner and he leaves the wilderness to sail home, back to his loving mother.
and into the night of his very own room
where he found his supper waiting for him
and it was still hot.
Published in 1963, this book offers an insightful story with excellent illustrations.
Suggested age: Read aloud to 4+. Read by self 5+. Recommended for an intermediate reader.
