Where the Wild Things Are:
Monsters into the 21st Century
Article 14
by Lyn Lacy 2000 words
Children in the 1960s were surprised, if not downright frightened, by the monsters in Where the Wild Things Are (1963) by Maurice Sendak (1928-2012). Today however, Bull, Judith, Carol, K. W., Douglas, Ira, and Alexander—as the monsters were named in the “Wild Things” movie—are seen as incredibly homely, absurd in a couple of instances and downright pathetic when unloved and left behind.
Few people realized over fifty years ago what a groundbreaker Sendak’s picture book would be. Now, it is difficult to believe that parents, teachers and librarians were outraged over monsters they considered inappropriate for children. Where the Wild Things Are, to put it mildly, was just too wild.
Ironically, such criticism is often cited as one of the reasons why the book has such staying power. Margalit Fox in The New York Times (8 May 2012) saluted Sendak as "the most important children's book artist of the 20th century." John Cech has written, “Sendak’s willingness to experiment with varied subjects and stylistic modes contributes to the uniquely defining presence that his work has among contemporary children’s books. In fact, it is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine children’s literature today without his works and the children who inhabit them.” (Angels and Wild Things: The Archetypal Poetics of Maurice Sendak, 1995, p. 3)
The outrage about monsters in Where the Wild Things Are had to do with their terrible roars and terrible teeth and terrible eyes and terrible claws. However, Sendak defended his creatures, saying, “Adults who are troubled by the scariness of (Max’s) fantasy forget that my hero is having the time of his life…Children send me their own drawings of Wild Things: monstrous, hair-raising visions; dream creatures, befanged and beclawed, towering King Kong-like over jungle islands. They make my Wild Things look like cuddly fuzzballs.”
Little did the monsters know at the end of the book that they would not be left behind all alone but would be joined over the next fifty years by many beasties from other wildly- talented illustrators, such as Mercer Mayer (1943-) in There's a Nightmare in My Closet (1968), Jan Pienkowski (1936-) in the pop-up book Haunted House (1979), Henrik Drescher (1955-) in Simon’s Book (1983) and Ed Emberley (1931-) in Go Away, Big Green Monster! (1992). Peter Sis (n.d. ) illustrated dragons as a kind of monster in The Dragons Are Singing Tonight: Poems, written by Jack Prelutsky (Paw Prints, 1993), which had forerunners to many wild things seen in the 21st century. Not all the dragons were fierce or unfriendly; many were disconsolate, gentle, kind or even lazy. A fantastic mechanical dragon “clatters and creaks and rattles and squeaks,” and another one who wasn’t feeling good was fed “turpentine and phosphorus and gasoline.” Prelutsky and Sis even had a dragon in the computer and another one secretly “living in the tub.”
Sendak’s influence with his monsters opened up the door for 21st century illustrators from around the world who introduce wild things that are just as bold, amusing, startling and disorderly – in a word, wild. Like the Wild Things, many of these guys also want to be friends, to be playmates, to be loved and best of all, to be tamed by resilient little kids. As for the other monsters, well, they are monstrous.
2001 Matt Faulkner (American, 1961-), Illustrator. The Monster Who Ate My Peas by Danny Schnitzlein, Atlanta: Peachtree, 32pp, 9” x 10.5”
Monsters will eat anything, so it seems. First, a grotesque little man turns into a monster that makes a deal with a boy to eat his peas in exchange for some of the boy’s possessions. Before Faulkner decided on the final cover illustration, he tried several versions to get the yucky garbage beastie just right -- slimy tentacles, five bulging eyes, cauliflower ears, and eggplant nose. Schnitzlein’s poem adds that the creature’s "big bloated body was broccoli-green And his breath, when he sneered, reeked of rotten sardines." Faulkner also illustrated Schnitzlein’s Trick or Treat On Monster Street (2008), in which a boy who’s scared of monsters wears his bunny suit for Halloween while his big brothers make fun of him.
2005 Emily Gravett (British, 1973-), Author and Illustrator. Wolves, New York: Simon and Schuster, 40pp, 10.2” x 8.8”
In the beginning, the picture book audience is at the Public Burrowing Library where Rabbit checks out a red nonfiction book titled WOLVES (and it’s the same red book the audience has in its hands). Then the audience is watching Rabbit walking along reading his book, and its pages are open to see them get bigger and bigger as each one is turned, until Rabbit’s book page fills the page in the book in the audiences’ hands. Then outside Rabbit’s book again – the audience is with Wolf himself and his sharp claws, teeth, knife, and fork, watching Rabbit still reading his book until it comes to the part that says wolves eat rabbits. Then there’s no more Rabbit, just his red, scratched-up book (that no longer looks like the one the audience holds in its hands). Gravett is also author/illustrator of the 2008 Kate Greenaway Medal winner Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears.
2005 Mercer Mayer (American, 1943-), Author and Illustrator. There Are Monsters Everywhere, Dial, 32 pp, 8.8” x 10.8”
Mayer loves his monsters just as much as his readers have, but this time he introduces a hero with great karate moves that keep the big fellas in line. He conquers his fears of monsters under the bed, in the shower, in the basement and even in the garbage can. Earlier books in Mayer's series There’s Something in My Room are the now-famous There’s a Nightmare in My Closet (1968), One Monster After Another (1974), There’s an Alligator under My Bed (1987) and There’s Something in My Attic (1992).
2005 Mo Willems (1968-), Author and Illustrator. Leonardo, the Terrible Monster, New York: Hyperion, 48pp, 9.5” x 13”
Leonardo is terrible at being a monster and can't seem to frighten anyone. He tip-toes and makes a ferocious face, finally scaring the tuna salad out of a nervous little boy named Sam. He celebrates when he makes Sam cry but decides he’d rather be a good friend than a terrible monster. Willems continued with Sam, the Most Scaredy-cat Kid in the Whole World: a Leonardo, the Terrible Monster Companion in 2017. See also Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! in chapter 6 plus Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale (2004) and Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity (2007) in chapter 7.
2006 Matthew Reinhart (1971-), Paper Engineer. Mommy? with art by Maurice Sendak and scenario by Arthur Yorinks, New York: Scholastic, 12pp, 8.8” x 8.5”
A remarkable feat of paper engineering by Reinhart shows every Gothic villain a child could want popping up from classic horror movies–Count Dracula, the Wolfman, Phantom of the Opera, the Mummy, Frankenstein’s monster, along with the mad scientist himself, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, and his green lab assistant, Igor—and all drawn by Sendak, with a text by his friend and protégé, Arthur Yorinks. A fearless Sendak baby in a blue onesie and funky knit tuque comes to the scientist’s spooky old house looking for his mommy and the little guy, in typical Sendak fashion, makes fools of all the big creepy guys until a gal steps forward to claim him—you guessed it, a mummy mommy who looks like Elsa Lancaster in the “The Bride of Frankenstein’ movie. Reinhart is author/illustrator with Robert Sabuda of the pop-up Encyclopedia Mythologica (2011).
2008 Edward Hemingway (American, 1968-), Author and Illustrator. Bump In The Night, New York: Penguin, 32pp, 9” x 10”
Everything seems normal enough for Billy after he has put away his toys. Then bedtime comes, and the night glows with an eerie blue. A monster leaps from the closet, not only messing up all the toys again but also chasing away other ghoulies, ghosties, and beasties. In fact, this thing that goes bump in the night is an all-right kind of guy, so Billy goes off with him to fight pirates and ends up having a whale of a good time. A diagram at the end shows that no one needs be afraid of a little monster with a ponytail, sweet smile, and blue-carrot nose. Hemingway also wrote and illustrated Field Guide to the Grumpasaurus (2016) and Tough Cookie: A Christmas Story (2018).
2009 Rebecca Emberley (American, 1958-), Author/Illustrator, Ed Emberley (American, 1931-), Author/Illustrator and Adrian Emberley (American, n.d.), Author/Compiler. There Was An Old Monster!, New York: Orchard Press, 32pp, 9” x 11.5”
A variation on the traditional folk song, “There was an old lady who swallowed a fly,” the Emberleys’ tale is about an old monster who swallowed a tick (made him feel sick), some ants (had him dancing in his pants), a lizard (it yanked open his gizzard), a bat, a jackal, a bear, then a lion -- but ROAR! He is no more! “These characters were created by scanning shapes cut out of paper into an Apple computer where Aldus Freehand software was used to color, size, and otherwise manipulate them,” said Ed Emberley. The prolific team also created Chicken Little (2009), If You’re a Monster and You Know It (2010), Ten Little Beasties (2011),The Itsy Bitsy Spider (2013), The Crocodile and the Scorpion (2013) and Spare Parts (2015).
2009 Peter McCarty (American, 1966 -), Author and Illustrator. Jeremy Draws A Monster, New York: Holt, 40pp, 10.3” x 10.4
The monster Jeremy draws is demanding and never says thank you, so Jeremy draws a pink hat, suitcase, and one-way ticket, then puts the bossy beast on the next bus out of town. McCarty’s few, simple shapes on white space might be just how Jeremy himself draws. McCarty has said, “Most of my childhood was spent in my head. To this day I develop characters and environments based on worlds I first created when I was three…As a storyteller, I am researching different ways of bringing characters alive. I need to get them out of my head!” McCarty created a sequel, The Monster Returns (2012).
2009 Howard McWilliam (British, 1977-), Illustrator. I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll, Brooklyn: Flashlight Press, 32pp, 10.2” x 10.2”
When Ethan’s monster Gabe goes fishing, Ethan knocks on the floorboards to summon a substitute, never guessing how many ridiculously un-scary guys (and one gal) would apply for the job. McWilliam works with an Apple computer, Photoshop and Corel Painter software to color his pencil drawings with digital acrylics. The author/illustrator team continued their series I Need My Monster with Hey, That’s MY Monster! (2016), Are You My Monster? (2019), How I Met My Monster (2019) and Shari Dash Greenspan co-authored with Amanda Noll for D is for Drool: My Monster Alphabet (2021).
2010 Bill Thomson (American, 1963 -), Author and Illustrator. CHALK, Seattle: Two Lions, 40pp, 12.2” x 9.2”
A boy uses magical chalk to draw a T. rex just like the playground’s dinosaur spring rider, but this one comes to life and chases all the kids into a turbo tube slide. Thomson has precise, detailed pictures that look like they could be photographs or computer-generated images, but each one is actually painstakingly made using traditional techniques with paint and pen. Thomson has said, “I try to make my drawings dynamic and, like a movie director, I experiment with a variety of perspectives so the reader will feel like they are part of the scene. To assist me, I take hundreds of photographs to look at while I am painting.” Thomson next created Fossil (2010) and The Typewriter (2016).
2013 Cybèle Young (Canadian, ), Author and Illustrator. Ten Birds Meet a Monster, Kids Can Press, 32 pp, 9.4” x 11.7”
The same black-and-white baby birds that Young introduced in her first book, Ten Birds (2011), are frightened by a menacing shadow they spy in the doorway. One at a time, they cleverly fashion a monster of their own to scare it away—a “Hideous Whip-tail Gangle Raptor”—out of clothes scattered on the floor. The tenth bird wanders through the doorway and returns with proof of mistaken identity. See also Article 13 for Ten Birds.
2018 Emily Tetri (American, ), Author and Illustrator. Tiger vs. Nightmare, First Second, 64 pp, 7.4” x 9.4”
Little Tiger luckily has a nice Monster who lives under the bed, shares her dinner, plays games at bedtime and then frightens any bad dreams away. But one night a dark, menacing reptilian nightmare means the two friends must bravely work together to chase it away.
Ordering Bibliography
• Emberley, Rebecca. There Was An Old Monster!, illustrated by Ed Emberley and Rebecca Emberley with Adrian Emberley, 2009, Orchard Books, ISBN-10: 054510145X, ISBN-13: 978-0545101455
• Gravett, Emily. Wolves, 2005, Simon and Schuster, ISBN-10: 1416914919, ISBN-13: 978-1416914914
• Hemingway, Edward. Bump In The Night, 2008, Penguin, ISBN-10: 0399247610, ISBN-13: 978-0399247613
• Mayer, Mercer. There Are Monsters Everywhere, 2005, Dial, ISBN-10: 0803706219, ISBN-13: 978-0803706217
• McCarty, Peter. Jeremy Draws A Monster, 2009, Holt, ISBN-10: 9780805069341, ISBN-13: 978-0805069341, ASIN: 0805069348
• Noll, Amanda. I Need My Monster illustrated by Howard McWilliam, 2009, Flashlight Press, ISBN-10: 9780979974625, ISBN-13: 978-0979974625, ASIN: 0979974623
• Reinhart, Matthew. Mommy? with art by Maurice Sendak and scenario by Arthur Yorinks, 2006, Scholastic, ISBN-10: 9780439880503, ISBN-13: 978-0439880503, ASIN: 0439880505
• Schnitzlein, Danny. The Monster Who Ate My Peas illustrated by Matt Faulkner, 2001, Peachtree, ISBN-10: 1561455334, ISBN-13: 978-1561455331
• Tetri, Emily. Tiger vs. Nightmare, 2018, First Second, ISBN-10: 1626725357, ISBN-13: 978-1626725355
• Thomson, Bill. CHALK, 2010, Seattle: Two Lions, ISBN-10: 0761455264, ISBN-13: 978-0761455264
• Willems, Mo. Leonardo, the Terrible Monster, 2005, Hyperion, ISBN-10: 0786852941, ISBN-13: 978-0786852949
• Young, Cybèle. Ten Birds Meet a Monster, 2013, Kids Can Press, ISBN-10: 1554539552, ISBN-13: 978-1554539550
Note: This blog was created by Lyn Lacy to share history and express personal opinions about innovative picture books. Please respect copyrights of the images which are for educational purposes only and are not to be copied for any reason.
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