Where the Wild Things Are

PLOT

Vardell makes the observation that picture book plots may be very simple but that “there should always be some conflict that grows out of a situation that is believable and relevant to the young child.”

Nothing, perhaps, can be more believable than a young child feeling wrongly punished and longing to escape to place where their riotous behavior is welcomed .  Sendak’s classic captures this idea perfectly and resolves itself when Max realizes that he misses his mother and the structure that her rules provide.


Sendak, M. (1963). Where the Wild Things Are. New York: Harper & Row.