As many of you may already know, Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book Where the Wild Things Are, has been made into a film by Warner Bros. With a director like Spike Jonze and a score composed in part by Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ singer Karen O, the film has potential to be as wonderfully different as the book itself. I can’t help but he a bit worried, however. Where the Wild Thigs Are remains as my favorite book from my childhood. The pictures didn’t look anything like the pictures in my other books.  It was more magical than anything else that was sitting in my overflowing bookshelf. I was five and wanted nothing more than to find monsters, wild things, hiding under my bed.

When I first heard the book was being turned into a movie, I was pretty upset. Certain things are sacred in my world, and that book is one of them. It was awful what Dreamworks did to The Polar Express, another book permanently etched into my childhood memories. I loved those books so much because of they way let my imagnation take hold.  My sister and I would read Wild Things together and then go play in the woods behind our grandparents’ house for hours. It became part of our story.  It’s hard to produce that kind of awe – a kind that is not just visual stimulation from the big screen, it has to be more real than that. It has to move children to make their own world as magical as Max’s.

It is such a wonderful story and it is in no way surprising that it was made into a film.  I just hope it won’t replace the book for future generations.  When a book is taken from the hands of children and turned over to Hollywood, it can sometimes spoil the experience. I do have hopes for this one. It’s a book I know many people hold near and dear. Jonze and co. have a lot to live up to. Yet, with Wild Things t-shirts currently on sale at Urban Outfitters, you can’t help but wonder if it will become something else completely. By the looks of the trailers, with the Arcade Fire telling us “children don’t grow up, our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up,” this one may have found the right heart.  It might be nice to remember what it’s like to be a kid and go on a great adventure as king of the wild things.