In The Night Kitchen has been so historically controversial, comedian and television personality Stephen Colbert interviewed Sendak, and Colbert produced a copy of In The Night Kitchen with numerous circles cut out wherever Mickey’s genitals or buttocks were illustrated (Harvey). There are instances where it has even been burned, and it is still banned in numerous libraries (“Case Study”). There have been censorship cases against the book in Illinois, New Jersey, Texas, and Minnesota (“Maurice Sendak”). According to the ALA, it ranks 25th on the top 100 most challenged books of the 1990s. In The Night Kitchen has won multiple awards, including the 1971 Caldecott Medal, Outstanding Children’s Book of 1970, and Best Book of 1970 (“Maurice Sendak”). More people are familiar with his book, Where The Wild Things Are, which he both wrote and illustrated. It was written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak, who claims in interviews he doesn’t write for children, even though all of his works are approachable for young readers. To begin with, In The Night Kitchen was published in 1970 by Harper and Row.

I will discuss the publication history of In The Night Kitchen and why it has been widely banned, and then I will offer a two-part lesson plan informed by the book focused on discussing both graphic novel terminology and censorship. The story ends, “And that’s why, thanks to Mickey we have cake every morning” (Sendak, 40). Once in the bottle, he loses his batter coating, grabs a pitcher of milk for the batter and brings it down to the bakers, where they bake their cake. He uses the airplane to get in to the extremely large milk bottle sitting in the Night Kitchen. He tells them that he is not milk, but he can get some milk for their batter! He jumps out of the cake, covered in batter, and in to bread dough which he kneads in to the shape of an airplane. There he meets three bakers who stir him in to cake batter, thinking he is milk. He falls out of bed, out of his pajamas, and in to the Night Kitchen.

The story is about a boy who falls asleep until he hears a noise that jolts him awake. 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 illustrations. Every child has their favorite fantasy book that mom and dad read every night five times before they can actually fall asleep.

Sendak in the night kitchen