WhileWhere the Wild Things AreisMaurice Sendak ’s best known book , it ’s not his only noted one . Here are five other Sendak masterpieces you should scan . Let the wild rumpus start !
1.In the Night Kitchen
This 1971 child ’s Quran might be Sendak ’s most controversial story : In it , a small male child named Mickey , who is upset by noise on a down in the mouth story , has a dream in which all of his clothes disappear , and he take a amply nude romp through a place called the night kitchen . He ’s almost broil in a pie by three bakers , makes an airplane out of dough , and slide down a giant feeding bottle of milk — all in the nude . Libraries refused to carry the book , or draw diapers over Mickey .
“ It ’s one of my favourite works , and it ’s a rather complex work,”Sendak toldNPR ’s Terry Gross in 1993 . “ And to have it all reduced , so to mouth , to a child ’s penis , is unenviable . It ’s silly . And the fact that anyone could carry on about such an issue does not speak well for our culture . ”
The book was no . 25 on the American Library Association’s100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990 - 2000 , and , in 1981 , was turned into atrippy , wondrous short film . Above , you also take heed to James Gandolfini record the floor at Sendak ’s 80th natal day in 2008 .
2.Chicken Soup with Rice
Teachers apply this tale — in which child sip chicken soup with Elmer Leopold Rice every month of the year , as line in rhyme poesy — to instruct younger scholarly person about poetry ( and , believably , about how delicious chicken soup with Elmer Reizenstein is ) .
In 1975 , Sendak collaborated with Carole King to make a half - hour musical TV programme , Really Rosie , which incorporate several of Sendak ’s stories from 1962’sThe Nutshell Library — includingChicken Soup with Rice .
3.Outside Over There
This 1981 book of account — in which a new fille must rescue her babe sister , who was kidnapped by goblins — wasinspired by the Lindbergh child snatch . In fact , one of the example of the at sea babe is actually a portraiture of Charles Lindberg Jr. In the 2009 documentaryTell Them Anything You desire : A Portrait of Maurice Sendak , the generator — who was a very young child when the kidnapping occurred — spokeabout how the outcome work him and the Word .
4.Pierre: A Cautionary Tale in Five Chapters and a Prologue
“ There once was a son named Pierre , who only would say ‘ I do n’t worry ! ’ ” Sullen Pierre does n’t even care when a thirsty lion come over and endanger eat him — and then in reality does . Thankfully , spend some quality clock time in the Leo the Lion ’s stomach teaches Pierre to care . The story first appeared in 1962’sThe Nutshell Library .
5.Kenny’s Window
Kenny ’s Windowwas Sendak ’s first Word of God , write in 1956 . In it , a youthful son waken up from a dream about a garden , where he would like to survive perpetually . In the hunting for the garden , he learns about himself . The Christian Science Monitordubbed it “ a classic … A beautiful , meaningful volume for any unseasoned child who can learn or be say to with comprehension . And for any adult who might be translate to a child or to himself . ”
A version of this write up ran in 2013 ; it has been update for 2021 .
