Review: In the Night Kitchen

In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

My first thought after reading it was "What was it?" The second one was "No, wait! What was it?" I picked In the Night Kitchen, because it's listed as a children's classic. Since English is not my native language, I was spared this as a kid, but I thought that maybe my son would be interested. And no, turned out he wasn't.

Most of the reviews of this book on Goodreads mention the character's nudity one way or the other. The book is even called "one of the most controversial books in history" due to those pictures of a naked boy. Is it really what makes a book controversial? Mu son didn't even notice/comment on it, neither did I pay it any particular attention.

What I saw in this book was a surreal story. A boy called Mickey dreamt of cooking a cake and saving the day. Great. It is surreal all right, but not in a good way. A surrealism without any particular meaning. Not especially fun, either. I guess it's in the "best kids' books" list because it was written many years ago and a lot of people who make those lists read it in childhood. But I don't think it's a reason enough.

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