Where the wild things are - do the kids like it?

Bruce Handy, in an essay in the New York Times, Where the Wild Things Aren't, says, in his experience, no. 
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David Barnett, in a blog entry at the Guardian, has a different story - his son wanted a wolf suit like Max's, to wear to a school book event, and many pricked fingers later, his dad had sewn something that charmed his son (and, so he was told, Maurice Sendak). (Found this one via Alien Onion).
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I've read it to small children many times, and almost invariably it has caught them - you can feel their attention, and when you finish, they often as not say, AGAIN!  High school kids are happy to read it, very often again, and even if they don't remember it at first, they generally then do, and seem happy to revisit it.
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They're very personal things at times, aren't they, books?
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I have at home a copy of Daniel Eggers' novelisation of the script of the film of the picture book; and also the illustrated (abridged) movie storybook.  And I don't want to open either.  The film has opened in the US, but it's not opening here till early December, and I would prefer to come to its version fresh.
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Cheers

Ruth

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image source: www.bookdepository.com