High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Where the Wild Things Are is a 1963 children`s picture book by American writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak, originally published by Harper Row. The book has been adapted into other media several times, including an animated short in 1973 (with an updated version in 1988), a 1980 opera, and, in 2009, a live-action feature film adaptation directed by Spike Jonze. According to HarperCollins, the book has sold over 19 million copies worldwide as of 2008.