Customer Reviews

Where the Mild Things Are: A Very Meek Parody

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Who is the intended audience for this book? WHERE THE MILD THINGS ARE, A VERY MEEK PARODY, by Maurice Send-up and illustrated Bonnie Leick, has great potential to be very, very funny. However, this book is marketed as juvenile fiction, ostensibly for the same audience as the original WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE. That being the case, WHERE THE MILD THINGS ARE really misses the mark. The jokes - including the Cheap Gold Sticker award on the cover, the 1974 AMC Gremlin as the most dull car in the world, mild mannered Mog being bored into becoming a real monster by Martha Stewart, Bill Gates, Jay Leno, and Al Gore, the snide politically commentary, and a few jokes that are completely inappropriate for the younger crowd - are funny and understandable if you are 40, but not if you are four.

And if you ARE 40, the jokes in WHERE THE MILD THINGS ARE simply aren't hard hitting enough. The humor brings on a smile and even a chuckle, but no out loud guffaws. In this parody, Mog end up in Dullsville, and that is pretty much where WHERE THE MILD THINGS ARE stays.

On the bright side, the illustrations are colorful, fun, and very reminiscent of the original. Unfortunately, they are not enough to save WHERE THE MILD THINGS ARE. Completely unintelligible for kids, and not funny enough for adults, I don't see how WHERE THE MILD THINGS ARE will ever find an audience. It was a great idea; too bad there was no follow through.

This was clearly published to take advantage of the hype surrounding the recent release of the "Where the Wild Things Are" movie. I'm a huge fan of the original book, but this book left me cold. The concept was kind of cute. But the illustrations are nowhere near as charming as the original's. Kids won't get the references in the text to the various famous "mild" people, and adults won' find it terribly entertaining.

An obvious parody of "Where the wild things are", this book presents things differently. T

he "mild things" of the book are various celebrities who are depicted as boring. Some include Bill Gates and Al Gore.

This book may be entertaining to some but is not one I am particularly fond of.

This picture book follows the adventures of Mog, a mild-mannered monster who embarks on a journey in a 1974 AMC Gremlin. His journey brings him into contact with Martha, Leno, Gates, and Gore. The book has many wonderful illustrations, but the story is threadbare. Of course, the book does not have pretensions about any higher objectives.

It did succeed once in making me laugh during Mog's boring journey across America. He visits Arizona and the only caption is "Why?" My statements exactly.

I can't tell who this book is targeted at. It's a dumb little picture book. Will you enjoy it? Maybe.

So I have to admit that I thought this book was hysterical. Would my nine year-old daughter appreciate the humor? Probably not. Did that make it less funny to me? Nope. Don't try to take it too seriously, it's just a book. I love Where the Wild Things Are, but I am capable of loving this book as well. Give yourself permission to laugh at all of the dumb jokes.

Despite the terrible reviews, this book is worth flipping through... it's just not worth spending more than 5 minutes on. There are funnier books and funnier parodies.

"Where the mild things are" lives up to its bland promise of being a meek parody. Its humor is very subtle, with a mock-Caldecott-gold-seal on the front cover proclaiming "winner of the cheap gold sticker" and a newspaper headline proclaiming "Dullsville voted 'most boring town' an astonishing 36 years in a row." So it starts out cute, but then flips over into an odd political territory where the "boring" residents are Martha Stewart, Jay Leno, Bill Gates, and Al Gore... it's unclear who exactly the book would amuse (non-crafty republicans who dislike large businesses??). The plot also is very mild--the boringness of interacting with these 4 people drives Max ("Mog" in this parody) back home to his parents, where he's content to behave like a proper monster, having been "scared" by his visit to Dullsville.

So the book does have some amusing details, but no sense of cohesion, and even the plot is "meek" at best.

Maurice Send-up & Bonnie Leick's book "Where The Mild Things Are" is as the title indicates a parody of the book and soon to be movie "Where The Wild Things Are". Presumably the pair chose to write the book at this time in order to take advantage of the publicity of the upcoming movie. This is why I got it - thinking that it would be funny to see a story spun around a little monster escaping from his "wild" life to come to civilization and hang out with boring people. It's certainly an interesting premise and might make a funny kids book. One Big Thumbs Up - the artwork is wonderful and is a very good throwback to the original story.

However, this book is not really geared for children. It felt like to me that the story is intended for adult consumption - allowing nostalgic parents to have a little chuckle. Well as an adult, I can tell you that the book isn't worth more than a little chuckle. The story of the book is pretty boring and is only minutely humerous as we see that the little monster hangs out with such "mild" people as Jay Leno, Al Gore, Bill Gates and Martha Stewart.

As far as this being a kids book, I think that this is a big swing and a miss. Both my older kids (8 & 5) thought it was yawner (and the little one only likes picture books anyway). One picture shows the group "enjoying" the fun of binary numbers. Well unless you grew up in the '70's or know alot about computers, no kid is going to even know that computer language that runs your computer is based in 1's and 0's. The other scenes of the group enjoying mild things are similarly esoteric. I was left mostly to explain the jokes to my kids as I read the book - not really the sign of superior writing.

This is pretty much a book that a parent would pick up at the book store or Library looking for a good laugh, read for about a minute and then put back on the shelf and walk away.

Please don't be ignorant like me and assume that this is a book for children. In fact, don't expect much of anythng from this book.

I thought that writing a parody of Where the Wild Things Are was a good idea, but the author blew his chance to be truly funny. The first three pages were hysterical, especially, "Every couple of days his mother would check to make sure he wasn't dead." That is in reference to how boring the main character is.

Unfortunately, the mild things are over-sized parodies of Martha Stewart, Jay Leno, Bill Gates, and Al Gore. Even if you disliked one or more of those people, I doubt you would find anything humorous about it. I also thought it was an unusual grouping of four people. It goes on to make fun of speeches, cleaning, energy-saving light bulbs, and binary code. Although, including an AMC Gremlin was slightly amusing.

I don't recommend this book at all, but I give it two stars for the title, and first few pages.

Wow! I can just envision the reactions of different audiences for this book, Where The Mild Things Are:

1. You love Where the Wild Things Are, and any parody is going to set you off.

2. You appreciate creativity, and you'll snicker throughout.

3. You don't get it.

4. You get it, but think these authors are just trying to make a buck because of the movie release for Where The Wild Things Are.

5. You are still fuming because you expected Jim Carrey in the movie.

6. You disregard anything that hints at climate change (sorry, Al).

Or... you read (to yourself or a young one) Where The Wild Things Are, and you read Where The Mild Things Are, and you just let those young ones enjoy the story and the ride. Who cares if they don't know who Martha Stewart, Bill Gates, Jay Leno, and Al Gore are? Who knows who the original monsters were? One was a poet, another was a sound engineer, and the third was a presidential advisor (betcha didn't know this!).

I do think this reads best in combination with the original version. And after reading both, let the wild preference rumpus begin!

First off, I have to admit that I fell in the generation before the book that this volume is parodying was popular and I have no children. So, I actually never read the original. But, even thought this is a short book, I found myself laughing out loud at least a half-dozen times!

It seems a few folks complained it was not for kids. Well, it isn't. Why? First off it's a PARODY - it says o as part of the title. And most kids are too young to understand what a parody is. Next are the cultural references here. Not only are politicians mentioned as characters but so is a car model nearly no kid - even those under 16 - would know about. (That car reference was one of the bigger laughs I got.).

The "parody" concept carries itself through to the name of the author. (Take a look). And note the "Cheap Gold Sticker" on the front!

Now, young children will probably enjoy Bonnie Leick's colorful illustration, even though they might not understand the humor in the text. But this book is really aimed at those adults who grew up with the original Sendak book - and will rush to see the film being released this month (October), which is NOT aimed at young kids.

So I'd recommend this book for "WTWTA" groupies and anyone else who can appreciate a fun parody.

Steve Ramm

"Anything Phonographic"