Honestly, I've never been a huge fan of Where the Wild Things Are. Sure, the monsters are cool, and the pictures of Max's room turning into a jungle do capture a bit of magic. But frankly, I just don't think this story lives up to the pictures.I put off reading it to my niece and my nephew because it's not a book that I particulary like, but then I realized that I was blocking their exposure to it based on my subjective opinion of the book. So today I checked it out to read to them. My niece has read this book before, and she likes it just fine--she said she'd probably give it three stars. She enjoys the pictures of the monsters in the story, and she appreciates Max's imagination. And let me tell you, she can draw a darn good Where the Wild Things Are style monster, too!
But my nephew agrees with me. I specifically asked him if he liked the book, and he looked at me and said, "no, I don't." He listened to the story, but he was not taken with it at all. In fact, he said to me, "Can you take that back to the library and get a different book?" Not enamored.
Turns out, my sister doesn't care for Where the Wild Things Are either. Since most people seem to adore this book, maybe my family just has some sort of weird genetic thing going on here. Whatever it is, Where the Wild Things Are just doesn't rate highly on our list.