I walked into Borders Bookstore the other day and right there on display in the front of the store was a new book by Maurice Sendack, or rather Maurice Send-up. It immediately caught my eye, because it looks a lot like a favorite book of mine Where the Wild Things Are. Well this was not that book. This book is called Where the Mild Things Are, A Very Meek Parody. I couldn’t help myself and read the whole book right then and there.
I am pretty certain that a child might not get the story. First of all, you have to have read Where the Wild Things Are to even appreciate it. It was loaded with ironies when compared to the original story and you must know those to appreciate where the author is going with it.
I just looked at the review on Amazon and it only received 2 stars out of 5. I am surprised because I found it to be full of humor and wit. I enjoyed the book immensely and would definitely like to read it again. I think the book is geared more towards book loving adults of the original Where the Wild Things Are. I would give the book 4.5 stars. I thoroughly enjoyed looking for the ironies and seeing how clever the author was in producing them.
I saw it at the bookstore too, and read most of it. I’m afraid I have to agree with the first reviewer on Amazon, who called it “A Light-Hearted Parody and Nothing More.” And what you said is exactly right–it’s for adults, not kids. As an adult, I don’t buy picture books. I evaluate picture books sold in the children’s section as children’s books. As such, I don’t see how it merits more than two stars…
As an adult who DOES buy picturebooks, I was excited to see this post. I am a children’s illustrator, and I do buy picturebooks for myself which my son isn’t allowed to touch! LOL! There is a whole slew of books by Edward Gorey that are picturebooks for adults, and I love Hillaire Belloc’s “Mathilda Who told such Dreadful Lies” illustrated by Posy Simmonds. The kid dies in the end.
However excited I was at the possibilites of this book, just reading the reviews at Amazon convinced me I’d probably give it 2-3 stars as well… Personally I don’t know that make of car, and it seems very centered around particular American media and political references that hold very little resonance for me. It is too bad, as certainly one could have gone beyond that with this premise and parody and created something that speaks to all of us whom have read Where the Wild Things Are. It is FINE that it is not for children, and indeed, the child under the age of 8 or 12 who really gets parody is a rare child indeed. It just needs to be a bit less “pop culture joke of the minute” I think.
(note, it is NOT the fault of the authors if the marketing dept or the tag word department of Amazon put it in the kids’ section when it is for adults)
On the other hand, has anyone read any of the other parodies listed on that page, esp the Goodnight Moon ones? Goodnight Goon, Goodnight Bush and Runaway Mummy seem to all get high praises.
I did read the Goodnight Goon book as well. I laughed at that as well. I feel like I have read so many bad books that when I find a good one I get excited. We get most of our books through the library and when we just pick them off the shelf there are rarely any great ones that we would want to reread. Most of the time I can’t understand how they even got published.
Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against people making or reading “picture books for adults.” I just don’t like them being placed in the children’s book section, reviewed with the children’s books, or discussed with children’s books…and, sadly, a lot of award-winners in recent years have been for books ostensibly aimed at children but really more appealing to the sensibilities of adults. That’s just wrong…
