THE WILD THINGS

Dave Eggers takes the delightful children’s book WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE and turns it into a novel for the young reader. Dion Graham does a particularly stellar job in bringing the monsters to life, giving them voices that match their personalities. His voice communicates the sometimes troubling aspects of the book, with all its talk of cannibalism. Young kids could find it disturbing. The monsters, representing the unfettered emotions of youth, are sometimes likable but often scary things. As in the original, young Max dons his wolf suit and flees to the forest, finds a boat and sails to an island populated by giant simple-minded monsters who elect him king. But he finds that ruling the beasts is more difficult than he imagined. M.S. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2009]