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Publication Date: October 8, 2009 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Author: · Bonnie Leick · Maurice Send-Up Grade: B
Mog is a monster who isn't all that frightening in his bunny suit, and he doesn't want to be. He enjoys his boring existence. Mog lives on an island with his parents and other monsters who "had appalling horns and appalling claws and appalling fur and were drawn with far too many lines, which made them very special."
One evening, after Mog is punished for playing with his food (a kitten), he's sent to his bed, which magically transforms into a 1974 Gremlin which Mog then drives across the USA finding all the dullest spots he can, ultimately arriving at his dream destination:
Finally, Mog found the perfect spot: Dullsville. And there he met some very mild creatures. A Homemaker whose house was much cleaner than yours will ever be. A Comedian who wasn't all that funny. A very, very, very, very, very rich Nerd. And a boring man who had been Vice President, and had almost become President but not quite.
The artwork really carries the story here, for the caricaturish and titular Mild Things are easily recognizable as Martha Stewart, Jay Leno, Bill Gates and Al Gore. And for a while, after Mog is elected President of the Mild Things, the artwork tells the story as we watch the new group of friends enjoying things like doing taxes, learning binary code, washing socks, and changing lightbulbs. But after a while, things get just a little too mild for Mog, and he's quite ready to go back home and be the monster he was always meant to be. (Look out, kitten!)
While the text doesn't play on the original Maurice Sendak classic as well as it might, the illustrations from Bonnie Leick are splendid, with each Mild Thing drawn to the same scale to Mog as Sendak's Wild Things were to his young Max. Pseudonymously penned by "Maurice Send-Up" and released with the proper timing to take advantage of the theatrical release of Spike Jonze's "Where the Wild Things Are," Where the Mild Things Are will be blown through quickly by youngsters, while adults will likely choose to peruse it more leisurely, taking the time to enjoy the jokes that target them far more accurately. Which is just the type of behavior one would expect from a Mild Thing.
