What was where the wild things are about
10 wild facts about Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are | Children's books
President Obama chose to read one of his favourite children’s books, Where The Wild Things Are, for the 2016 Easter Egg Roll at the White House. His very dramatic reading, accompanied by First Lady Michelle, featured claws and roars from the excited crowd! As one of our favourite children’s books too, here are some fun facts that you may or may not know about Maurice Sendak’s classic.
1. The book is about the author’s childhood
Where The Wild Things Are is inspired by Maurice’s youth, his background growing up in Brooklyn and his relationship with his parents. He intended to write about his own experiences and the people he knew, and the books became a form of self-expression for him.
President Obama and First Lady Michelle read Where The Wild Things Are Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images2. Maurice actually began his career as an illustrator
Maurice’s first published work were illustrations for a textbook titled Atomics for the Millions in 1947. He continued to illustrate other people’s children’s books, before he was given the chance to write and draw his own.
3. Where The Wild Things Are was not the original title
The initial working title of the book was ‘Where The Wild Horses Are’, and the story was supposed to be about a child who escapes to the land of the wild horses. Although his editor loved the idea, Maurice realised he was unable to draw horses, and the idea of the ‘Wild Things’ was born.
4. ‘Wild thing’ refers to a Yiddish term
When Maurice was a child, his mother often used to call him a “vilde chaya”, meaning ‘wild animal’ in Yiddish. In the book, when Max’s mother call’s him a “wild thing!” he retorts with “I’ll eat you up!”, which is why he is sent to bed with no supper.
An image from the 2009 film adaptation of Where The Wild Things Are. Photograph: Warner Bros.5. The ‘Things’ in the book were based on Maurice’s relatives
Maurice began to draw his ‘Things’, which he wanted to be personal creations rather than stereotypical and traditional monsters.
He soon realised his inventions were similar to his Jewish relatives from his childhood, who came for Sunday lunch each week and often told him he “looked so good we could eat you up”. He focused on their appearance as entertainment when he was younger, and this is what inspired the ‘Wild Things’.
6. Like Max, Maurice often went to bed without his supper
After dressing in his wolf costume and causing chaos in his house, Max is sent to bed with no supper as a punishment. Maurice revealed that he too sometimes went to bed without any supper, but for a very different reason – he hated his mother’s cooking!
7. The book was initially received badly
Upon its release, many psychologists thought that the book would be very traumatising for young children. A prominent psychiatrist said the book would cause fear of desertion, and that Max throwing a tantrum is unacceptable behaviour which appeared to be glorified in the story. Since then, the psychiatrist revealed they had never even read the book, and it has gone on to receive many awards, including the Caldecott medal.
8. Maurice didn’t want to write a sequel
Despite the popularity of the book, which was his most successful, before his death Maurice revealed he didn’t want to create a series from the story, and there was no convincing him to even consider it.
9. Where The Wild Things Are has been adapted many times
In the 1980s, Maurice worked with the British composer Oliver Knussen on a children’s opera based on the book, which was most notably performed at the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2002. In 1983, Walt Disney conducted a series of computer-generated imagery tests, using Where The Wild Things Are as their subject. In 2009, a live-action film version of the book was released, directed by Spike Jonze and with Maurice as one of the producers.
10. The children’s book has received many awards
Obama is not the only president who is a big fan of the book – in 1997, American writer Maurice received the National Medal of Arts from President Clinton!
Where the Wild Things Are - Teaching Children Philosophy
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Summary
This wonderfully imaginative book provides an excellent opportunity to discuss two basic themes with children: punishment and dreams.
Max gets sent to his room without dinner for disrespecting his mother. He then takes a trip to the magical land of the wild things. As their king, he rules the land until he gets homesick and heads for home, where he finds his dinner waiting for him, still warm.
Read aloud video by Ms. CeCe
Guidelines for Philosophical Discussion
Where the Wild Things Are is a brilliant exploration of the contents of a child’s imagination. Angry and hurt by his mother’s punishment, Max, who may have cried himself to sleep, finds himself dreaming a fantastic dream in which he goes to a place where he can be king.
This wonderfully imaginative book provides an excellent opportunity to discuss two basic themes with children: punishment and dreams. Both of these topics are important issues in philosophy.
Max has definitely misbehaved, so his mother punishes him by sending him to bed without eating. Students can be prompted to consider whether Max’s punishment is appropriate.
Does Max’s punishment “fit” his crime? Should punishments always fit the crimes they punish and how can this be done? After all, our society generally punishes criminals by putting them in jail or fining them. Do those punishments fit all the various crimes for which there are punishments?
A broader question is why should violations of rules and misbehavior be punished at all? There are various different philosophical theories addressing this issue. Some emphasize reforming the “criminal” while others focus on deterring crimes. Asking the children why Max’s mother punishes him provides them with an opportunity to think about why punishments are used both in families and society more generally.
Max’s dream about the land of the wild things raises interesting questions about the nature of the imagination and its operation. First, it is important to see what the children think about where the wild things are. If they agree that it is in a world created by Max’s imagination, they will have a chance to think about what the difference is between real things and things that are only dreamed about or imagined.
Philosophers in the empiricist tradition often claim that we can only imagine things using the materials that we have previously perceived. Since many features of the wild things’ world resemble Max’s actual world, this book provides an opportunity to think about whether this empiricist claim is true.
Questions for Philosophical Discussion
Max was sent to bed by his mother without eating anything.
- How do you think Max feels when his mother sends him to his room?
- Do you think that Max’s punishment is fair? Why or why not?
- Is there a different punishment that would have been better?
- Should parents punish their children? Why or why not?
That very night in Max’s room a forest grew.
- Do you think a forest really grew in Max’s room?
- If not, what do you think really happened?
- So is the forest real or not? If not, what type of forest is it? If so, how can a forest grow in a bedroom of a house?
Max sailed through night and day and in and out of weeks and almost over a year to where the wild things are.
- Where are the wild things?
- Do you think the wild things are real?
- Did Max dream them? Imagine them?
- What’s the difference between real things and objects that you dream about or imagine?
- Can you tell that you are not dreaming now?
“Max wanted to be where someone loved him best of all?”
- Have you ever felt loved best of all by someone?
- Have you ever felt that no one loved you best of all?
- How important is it to feel loved best of all?
Original questions and guidelines for philosophical discussion by Thomas Wartenberg. Edited May 2020 by The Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics.
Find tips for leading a philosophical discussion on our Resources page.
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In 2019, the Prindle Institute partrnered with Thomas Wartenberg and became the digital home of his Teaching Children Philosophy discussion guides.
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Some of the books on this site may contain characterizations or illustrations that are culturally insensitive or inaccurate. We encourage educators to visit the Association for Library Service to Children’s resource guide for talking to children about issues of race and culture in literature. They also have a guide for navigating tough conversations. PBS Kids’ set of resources for talking to young children about race and racism might also be useful for educators.
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“He did some wild things. It was crazy - I can't accept that. After all, people do what others do. Dana White took this situation too calmly. Like, it happens.
But it was wild. What if he stormed into the press conference? That would be even worse. How much can you get away with this guy? - said the athlete.
Holloway also noted that he was worried about the soldiers wounded on the bus.
“I think he was surprised that he broke the window, because he first grabbed the metal tank, but then put it back and took the light plastic one.
Conor crossed the line, but that's none of my business. I'm worried about other fighters - Ray Borg and Michael Chiesa missed their fights. This is madness!" added the fighter.
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the wildest things you can learn from the Litvinenko assassination report - Yulia Dudkina - Politics - Site Content - Snob threatened that he would take new measures against Russia. “They didn’t stealthily stab him in a dark alley to make it look like a street robbery, they made it quite clear that it was an execution—that’s what the polonium was for. Therefore, we must react very harshly. You can’t just take and reprimand them, ”said British MP David Davis. But the Russian Investigative Committee denied the allegations and said that the investigation back in 2014 “moved from the criminal law to the political plane.
” The Russian Foreign Ministry also called the Litvinenko death case politicized, and the Russian ambassador to the UK called the British judge's report a "provocation." “We are talking about some judgments based on probability, on the use of the words “possible” and “probably”. Detailed terms are not allowed in judicial practice, ”Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov commented on this situation. Both Kovtun and Lugovoy denied the accusations against them. “I have nothing to do with Litvinenko's death. As for the report published in London on the results of an open trial, Robert Owen could not draw other conclusions on the basis of falsified, fabricated evidence, ”Kovtun said. Lugovoy added that "the results of the investigation announced today once again confirm the anti-Russian position of London, the narrow-mindedness and unwillingness of the British to establish the true cause of Litvinenko's death."
Robert Owen's report occupies 328 pages and is published on The Litvinenko Inquiry website.
"Snob" gives its most important and unexpected fragments.
1. Litvinenko in Chechnya
“As I said, Mr. Litvinenko participated in military operations in Chechnya for some time. As Marina Litvinenko recalls, at that time he constantly had frostbite on his hands and feet. It was during this period that he began to change his attitude towards the Chechen war. Once he interrogated a 17-year-old Chechen prisoner and found out that all his classmates had to take up arms. Then he remembered how Russia defended itself during the Second World War, and began to understand what the Chechen people want and what they are fighting for, ”the judge writes.
2. Everyday life in the FSB: murders and racketeering
In the summer of 1997, Litvinenko was transferred to the Directorate for the Development and Suppression of the Activities of Criminal Organizations (URPO) of the FSB. It was a secret department, which was not located in the Lubyanka. Owen cites the memoirs of Marina Litvinenko: “The URPO employees were given tasks on the verge of legality.
” Litvinenko himself said that this was "a secret department of the KGB that kills politicians and businessmen without sentencing."
By the end of 1997, Litvinenko had received several assignments that seemed illegal to him. The first concerned Mikhail Trepashkin, a retired FSB officer, who criticized his former bosses and initiated a lawsuit against him. Litvinenko was supposed to attack Trepashkin and take away his belongings and official ID. The second case concerned a businessman and a native of Chechnya, Umar Dzhabrailov. He had to be kidnapped and money taken from him in order to pay a ransom for Russian officers in Chechen captivity. The third task was to kill Berezovsky.
Litvinenko and his colleagues had no intention of taking on these assignments, especially those involving Berezovsky. They began to take retaliatory steps against their superiors, culminating in a press conference on November 17, 1998, where they publicly exposed the FSB.
3. The first threats
Owen cites Marina Litvinenko's words about the nature of the threats that her husband received - an FSB colonel approached him and said: “We will not continue to discuss with you, we will kill you and your six-year-old son.
You are not being prosecuted for the crimes you have committed - everyone knows that you are innocent. You are being persecuted for betraying the system and openly acting against it.”
4. Islam
One of Litvinenko's closest friends was Akhmed Zakaev (former Brigadier General of the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria) who arrived in London in 2012 and asked for political asylum. Like Litvinenko, Zakayev used Berezovsky's help. Friendship with Zakayev strongly influenced Litvinenko and his beliefs about Chechnya. In addition, shortly before his death, Litvinenko converted to Islam and Zakayev helped him organize the entire procedure.
- Photo: Kommersant
- Akhmed Zakaev
5. Putin and pedophilia
In July 2006, Litvinenko published a text on the Chechenpress website that, according to Owen, experts called "the culmination of speeches against Putin." In this text, the Russian president is accused of pedophilia.
Here is what it says: “A few days ago, Vladimir Putin was walking from the Kremlin Palace to his residence and stopped to talk with tourists. Among them was a boy of four or five years old. "What is your name?" the president asked. "Nikita," the boy replied. Putin sat down, pulled up the boy's T-shirt and kissed him on the stomach. The world community was shocked: no one understood why the Russian president was kissing a little unfamiliar boy on the stomach. But if you look closely at the "blank spots" in Putin's biography, you can find an explanation. When he graduated from the Andropov Institute, which trains officers to serve in the KGB intelligence, Putin was not allowed into intelligence. Instead, he was sent to a junior position in the Leningrad directorate of the KGB. For an Andropov Institute graduate who speaks fluent German, this is a very unusual turn. What happened? Shortly before graduation, the authorities caught Putin in pedophilia - so say the people who studied with him.
Coming up with an excuse not to send Putin abroad was easier than starting a scandalous investigation. Many years later, when Putin became director of the FSB, he began to search for and destroy the evidence collected against him by the secret services.”
- Photo: Vladimir Rodionov/ITAR-TASS
- Vladimir Putin talking to tourists on Cathedral Square in the Kremlin
In December 2006, London police officers came to Moscow to talk to witnesses. Mr. Tarpey and Mr. Slater said that the trip was "not at all smooth sailing." For example, they were told that only one officer could be present at the interview of witnesses, that questions had to be sent in advance, they were forbidden to keep their own audio recording, and once, when Russian law enforcement officers were driving to the site of the next interview, they tried to break away from the British police car. Interviews with Kovtun and Lugovoi were constantly rescheduled, canceled, shortened in time, the police were not allowed to ask questions, they were told that both men were undergoing prophylaxis against radiation sickness, but at the same time they looked healthy.
Finally, the Russian side never produced an audio recording of the conversation with Lugovoi. A spokesman for the British police told the court that such "stupid" obstacles placed before the investigation "are hardly indicative of a desire for truth and justice." 7. Politkovskaya
Anna Politkovskaya, writes Owen, "beyond any doubt" was murdered.
- Photo: Alexey Druzhinin/RIA Novosti
- At the entrance of a residential building on Lesnaya Street, where Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya was killed
8. Fatal poisonings
the beginning of the 2000s are assembled into a bizarre puzzle. The assassination of Sergei Yushenkov, chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee, with four shots on April 17, 2003; the murder on August 21, 2002 of State Duma deputy Vladimir Golovlev; poisoning of the former President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko, death from poisoning of the deputy editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta Yuri Shchekochikhin in 2003.
Yushenkov and Shchekochikhin participated in the work of the commission investigating the circumstances of the explosions of houses in Moscow and Volgodonsk, Golovlev was Yushenkov's fellow party member, Viktor Yushchenko opposed Russia. Owen mentions the serious poisoning experienced by Anna Politkovskaya in 2004 during her trips to Grozny, and the murder of Amir ibn al-Khattab, one of the leaders of the Ichkerian gangs, who died from a poisoned letter. Also mentioned in this series is the death from poisoning of the St. Petersburg businessman Roman Tsepov, who was buried near the parents of Vladimir Putin. According to the report, Tsepov worked as an intermediary between politicians and criminal groups and was close to Vladimir Putin. Many of the symptoms of Tsepov's poisoning, such as hair loss and damage to the immune system, are similar to those of Litvinenko. Robert Owen believes that this chain of events is important for examining the circumstances of Litvinenko's death, as it shows that even before the death of the former FSB agent, the Russian state "may have been involved in the murder of Vladimir Putin's critics" and could finance attacks using poisons and radioactive elements.
9. Motives for the assassination
Robert Owen writes that there is no doubt that Russian President Vladimir Putin, members of his administration and the FSB had many motives for killing Alexander Litvinenko: dissatisfaction with his “betrayal” of the FSB, his publication of books critical of the FSB, statements that he was ordered to kill Boris Berezovsky, friendship with Berezovsky and Zakayev.
10. Did Putin know
Most of the judge's notes are devoted to the question of whether Vladimir Putin knew about the impending assassination attempt on Alexander Litvinenko and, if so, what exactly. Owen talks in detail about the traditions and concepts in the ranks of the FSB, which do not allow us to imagine a situation where the first person of the state does not know about such operations. Based on expert opinion, the judge says that the head of the FSB should have informed the president about the impending assassination attempt, but admits that at the moment such a statement cannot be proven.
