Parents are very easily scared.”Ĭensorship takes many forms, including on the grounds of religious principles, and, not surprisingly, Wild Things has been “challenged” in schools and libraries because of “witchcraft/supernatural elements.” Don’t laugh-so has Harry Potter, the most challenged book of the last decade according to the American Library Association.

Adding his voice to the outcry was prominent child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim, who wrote in Ladies’ Home Journal “What failed to understand is the incredible fear it evokes in the child to be sent to bed without supper, and this by the first and foremost giver of food and security-his mother.” Luckily for history, there were a lot more reasoned opinions, like this early review from a Cleveland newspaper : “Boys and girls may have to shield their parents from this book.

The editors weren’t off base, though, as the book did frighten people-they just happened to be adults, particularly those living in the South who immediately began pulling it from libraries and schools. In 1964 Where the Wild Things Are won the Caldecott Medal for best picture book, and since its publication has sold nearly twenty million copies worldwide. Silly editors, that’s exactly why it was an immediate hit.

One of the most beloved-and bestselling-children’s books of all time almost didn’t make it past his editors, who were scared that the unvarnished story of rebellion, fear, punishment, and escape were too much for little children. It took Maurice Sendak four years to get Harper & Row to publish Where the Wild Things Are. “That very night in Max’s room a forest grew and grew and grew until his ceiling hung with vines and the walls became the world all around and an ocean tumbled by with a private boat for Max and he sailed off through the night and day and in and out of weeks and almost over a year to where the wild things are.” To find out more about how you can get involved with Banned Books Month, click here. Today’s piece comes from Rob Spillman, editor of Tin House. 2023 PEN America Literary Awards Ceremonyįor our second-annual Banned Books Month, PEN America once again reached out to PEN members, supporters, and staff-writers and editors of all backgrounds and genres-who sent us their reflections on the banned books that matter most to them.

Where the wild things are book