Â鶹Éç

What is Maurice Sendak's classic children's book "Where the Wild Things Are" all about?

Philip Glassborow talks with Sendak's British editor, Judy Taylor, to his long-time friend, the distinguished writer and playwright Tony Kushner and to the American children's literature expert Leonard Marcus, who takes him back to the haunts of Sendak's American childhood in Brooklyn.

He is astonished to discover that in all the extensive press, radio and TV coverage of Sendak, nobody has ever thought to consult any children.

Every great children's book, has a world beyond its creator and here the Year 2 children of an Oxfordshire primary school have their say. Angry mothers and fathers with big hairy feet both feature in their interpretations of who the Wild Things really are.

With a reading by Henry Goodman and extensive use of Jewish Klezmer music, this programme will shed new light on who the Wild Things really are and act as a fitting legacy to the late, great master.

Producer Beaty Rubens

First broadcast on Â鶹Éç Radio 4 in June 2008.