What I Am reading to my kids, part 7

Where the Wild Things Are
By
Maurice Sendak

"...And it was still hot." This is probably my favorite line of the book, the very last one. It is significant because it is a quintessentially dual meaning line common to many children's books, that is that children and adults will interpret the line in different ways. I suppose that is true for most culture one encounters in life. I was watching a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie not too long ago, admiring the elegant and fleet foot work, and my son was following along, trying to imitate the tap dancing, as if it was something fun that all adults do.

The story of Where the Wild Things Are is almost negligible. A mischievous boy named Max dressed like a monster is sent to his room without supper and he imagines his room to transmogrify to a forest and a voyage to an island populated by monsters who regard him fearfully enough to make him king. After some wordless frolicking on the island, Max realizes he is really hungry and misses his family, so he returns to his room to find his dinner waiting for him "still hot." The dual meaning of the last line: to children, the hot meal represents comfort and becomes the most important feeling after the adventure described in the story, and to adults it is humorous for the same reasons, and an indication of something only adults know, that the only time that has passed is in Max's imagination. Kids on the other think a long time has passed, since that's what the story says and is a surprising afterthought.

The book is unusual in some respects for the middle, where there is nothing to read and only shows several pictures of Max and the monsters frolicking. These days it seems that every picture has to have narration, so when I read to my daughter she expects me to describe what is going on. Instead I just let her ask me questions about it, such as saying which of the monsters is my favorite, a common distinction kids ask for validation (it's the one that looks like a rooster, by the way).

The main trope employed in the story is one where an imaginary world is placed in an ordinary setting without a transition of some kind - it happens without comment. There is perhaps a history of this, beginning with C.S. Lewis' Narnia books or The Phantom Tollbooth, where a vehicle is clearly described to go to an imaginary world, then leading later to books like this one or say Harold and the Purple Crayon where the world is created spontaneously. Today, it is common to see people just existing in an imaginary world as a matter of fact, which not surprising since kids can instantly put themselves actively into a setting via a video game. Unfortunately, it seems as though the aftereffect is that kids can't really differentiate the two, whereas earlier stories focus on a clear transition between the terrestrial and the imaginary. There is no clearer definition than in the Lewis novels, when the world of an England under attack from the Nazis leads to haven in the world of Narnia.