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Where the Wild Things Are

Book Synopsis

One night Max puts on his wolf suit and makes mischief of one kind and another, so his mother calls him ‘Wild Thing’ and sends him to bed without his supper.

That night a forest begins to grow in Max’s room and an ocean rushes by with a boat to take Max to the place where the wild things are.

Max tames the wild things and crowns himself as their king, and then the wild rumpus begins!

But when Max has sent the monsters to bed, and everything is quiet, he starts to feel lonely and realises it is time to sail home to the place where someone loves him best of all.

Our Review Panel says...

In this gorgeous picture book we go on a journey with Max, who’s been sent to his room for chasing the dog with a fork, and being an all-round wild thing. But somehow his room becomes a forest, and when he travels across the sea by boat he finds more Wild Things and becomes their king.

This book is such a classic and, as such, means so many different things to so many different people. For me, it teaches a young child that it’s OK to feel angry; it’s OK to take some time out. Your family will still love you. They’ll still be waiting for you when you come back. When Max stomps off to visit the wild things, he’s angry and frustrated. He’s so mad that he sails off “through night and day and in and out of weeks and almost over a year”. When he calms down, he realises he misses home and, to the disappointment of his new Kingdom, he heads back to his bedroom where his “still hot” supper is waiting for him. This story is really the embodiment of an emotion and the power of those final lines – the release of them – still brings me to (happy) tears.

 

This book is available on these booklists:

Where the Wild Things Are Activity Pack

An activity pack provided by the publisher to accompany the book Where the Wild Things Are.

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Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?

Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?

Would you recommend the book for use in primary schools?

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