Beyond Where the Wild Things Are: Favorite Beasties of KidLit

“The night wore Max his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another his mother called him ‘WILD THING!’” So goes the first line of Maurice Sendak’s  51-year-old classic, Where the Wild Things Are. It might be a royal drag minding your own hooligan, but mischief and mayhem make for great stories. For fun, I’ve made a list of my favorite and biggest pain-in-the-ass beasties—both little human ones and actual beasties— in the history of picture books, along with their creators. And if you haven’t run into them already, invite them into your summer reading. Who’s your favorite beastly character in kid lit? Readers, feel free to add in the comments section…

1. Eloise (Eloise by Kay Thompson and Hilary Knight)
2. Pippi Longstocking (Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren)
3. Mickey (In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak)
4. Pigeon (Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems)
5. David (No, David! by David Shannon)
6. Lulu (Lulu and the Brontosaurus by Judith Viorst)
7. Maybelle (Two Sticks by Orel Protopopescu and Anne Wilsdorf)
8. Olivia (Olivia by Ian Falconer)
9. Augustus Gloop, Violet Beauregard, Veruca Salt, Mike Teavee (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl)
10. Franny K Stein (Franny K Stein: Mad Scientist series by Jim Benton)
11. George Beard and Harold Hutchins (Captain Underpants series by David Pilkey)
12. that little fishy (This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen)
13. Cat In the Hat (Cat In the Hat by Dr. Seuss)
14. Alice (Alice In Wonderland by Lewis Caroll)
15. those kids of Room 207 (Miss Nelson Is Missing! by Harry Allard and James Marshall)