“In the Night Kitchen” is an extremely unique and beautiful book about the wonders of the dream world and will surely captivate many children’s hearts just as “Where the Wild Things Are” has for many years. I would strongly recommend this book to children ages five years and older ...

"The story of Mickey's nighttime adventure in the bakers' kitchen is a highly original dream fantasy [with] deliciously playful illustrations [and a] chantable, easily remembered text. Pure delight for young children." - Booklist "Mickey is pure joy. . . or as the cooks chorus MILK IN THE BATTER!

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October 5, 2011 - When we first read the book, my daughter snorted and giggled at seeing Mickey naked for the first time, but, every subsequent time we’ve read it, his nudity has almost never come up. When she does notice it now, she just smiles and says, “He lost his clothes. What a goofball.” · But, all nakedness aside, I do find In the Night Kitchen to be a fairly difficult book to read.

March 17, 2014 - "In The Night Kitchen" is one of the most unusual books I chose to include in my 55 Classics. It is unusual because I've nearly memorized it I've read it so many times and it's unusual because it is just a picture book. If people know Maurice Sendak's name, they usually associate it with Where…

There's a bow to Van Allsburg, and another to Sendak's In the Night Kitchen, but Wiesner's broad double-spreads of a dream world—whose muted colors suggest a silent space outside of time—have their own charm. Intriguing. ... Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2013 ... BOOK REVIEW I GOT IT!

What freaks people out about In the Night Kitchen is the full-frontal nudity of Mickey, who is around five in my estimation. This child is naked twice in the book, and it isn't just that Mickey's nude. It's that we can clearly see his genitals. The sight of a nude child concerns many parents, who fear that this might be offensive, even pornographic.

The city of the Night Kitchen is charming – it’s even got elevated trains made out of bread loaves. The character designs are also spot-on; Mickey is wonderfully expressive, and the jolly, be-mustachio’ed appearance of the bakers – they look a little like the Mario Brothers actually – helps tip the tone of the book from scary to surreal.

October 17, 2023 - Detail from In the Night Kitchen ©️ Maurice Sendak 1970 · The bakers rejoice and Mickey is credited with being the reason we have cake every morning. ... This is another ‘Children’s Book’ that offers plenty for the adult reader, not to mention Sendak’s gorgeous illustrations which have a surreal, sometimes unsettling beauty.

September 16, 2003 - Maurice Sendak takes children for a joyride in this timeless nursery rhyme featuring Mickey, who tumbles from bed into the baker's night kitchen. Mickey's exploration of the strange night world is so vividly drawn readers almost live the dream, before returning safely to bed.

He floates down to the night kitchen where there are three comically odd bakers preparing a morning cake. They mistake Mickey for milk and end up putting him in the batter and into the oven. He tells them he is not the milk, and goes on a surreal journey to gather milk for their cake. Eventually the cake gets made and Mickey ends up back in his bed asleep. Of course, this is all a surreal and hazy dream. ... This book freaked me out when I was a kid, and I had the present notion that I still didn’t like it, but after reading it with adult eyes I found I was really enamored with In the Night Kitchen.

It received the Caldecott Honour Book Award in 1971. The Controversy: The main character in the story is Mickey and he looks about three or four years old. He hears noises coming from the kitchen in the middle of the night and he yells ,"Quiet down there!" In a dream-like fashion he descends ...

February 24, 2023 - [pdf version here: Cattrysse-Sendak’s ... asleep. Maurice Sendak's book In The Night Kitchen is a fantastical story that parents actually enjoy reading because of Sendak's clever rhymes and other-worldly, yet relatable…...

"The story of Mickey's nighttime adventure in the bakers' kitchen is a highly original dream fantasy [with] deliciously playful illustrations [and a] chantable, easily remembered text. Pure delight for young children." - Booklist "Mickey is pure joy. . . or as the cooks chorus MILK IN THE BATTER!

March 5, 2018 - One suspects, however, that the young listeners to this book (most of whom would be read to, rather than being readers of), would not see the pictures as provocative. Personally, I find the artwork gloriously colorful and ebulliently fantastical. I love this book. In The Art of Maurice Sendak, the author discusses all his childhood impressions that made their way into the creation of In the Night Kitchen.

August 13, 2016 - There is a lot of imagination in Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen, from its pantry-product buildings with their appliance toppers. The crazy chefs who simply see Mickey as yet another ingredient out of which he must escape. I suspect the kids will get another laugh at the idea of being baked in a cake.

I wish I could eat cake every day · What a surreal book. A little boy named Mickey, in a very dreamlike sequence, falls through his bed and out of his clothes. For most of the book, he's naked. I don't mind personally, but apparently the visible genitalia has caused this book to be banned ...

Presentation copy, inscribed by ... York City and the movies of the 1930s, In the Night Kitchen "spins the reader through the surreal fantasy of a child's dream, like Alice into Wonderland or Dorothy into Oz."...

September 5, 2025 - When Mickey (who looks to be about three years old) enters the Night Kitchen, he loses his pajamas and is fully naked in some parts of the story. Some critics have objected to Mickey's nudity which depicts not only his buttocks, but also his genitals. Some also interpret sexual innuendo in the events, with the nudity, free-flowing milky fluids, and a giant (allegedly phallic) milk bottle. As a result, the book proved controversial in the United States on its release and has continued to be so.

"The story of Mickey's nighttime adventure in the bakers' kitchen is a highly original dream fantasy [with] deliciously playful illustrations [and a] chantable, easily remembered text. Pure delight for young children." -- Booklist "Mickey is pure joy. . . or as the cooks chorus MILK IN THE BATTER!