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Oct 08, 2019IndyPL_SteveB rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
A watershed book in the history of children's literature and still popular with children after more than 50 years. Obviously not everyone loves this, but I do. Max gets mad at his mother and wonders off (in his imagination, perhaps) to be an angry "wild thing." and then he returns to his room and supper. Simple in some ways, but psychologically complex, as Max and the readers can see that you can get angry and still have your mother love you. If you don't see the complexity, try reading it aloud -- with feeling. The pictures are terrific and set a new standard in 1963. The success of this book showed publishers that there was a taste for a much wider variety of picture books than had previously been considered. This book, plus the juvenile novel, *A Wrinkle in Time,* published the year before in 1962, opened up the juvenile publishing industry to new ideas.