How can a little picture book generate so many stories? The internet is abuzz this week with articles and comments about the movie “Where the Wild Things Are,” including reviews (both good and bad) and interviews with director Spike Jonze and writer Dave Eggers and analysis about original author Maurice Sendak.

The only angle I haven’t read yet is  the real-life irony of the balloon boy’s exploits mesmerizing the country the day before the movie “Where the Wild Things Are” debuted.

The movie is based on Sendak’s classic picture book, which  likely is the most popular and admired Caldecott Medal winner of all time. One reason for the popularity is its universal plot: Young, rascally boy gets mad and in trouble. He then daydreams or fantasizes about escape to a different world. That world is dangerous and he learns that his own home is where he feels safe and loved.

"Balloon boy" Falcon Heene shows how he hid in attic. AP photo.

In Colorado Thursday, a family apparently feared that their own rascally, fearless 6-year-old flew off in a homemade helium balloon. The boy was actually hiding in an attic, saying he’d been afraid he’d be in trouble for unleashing the balloon. He also said he had been yelled at by his dad.

As investigators figure out what really happened, even considering the possibility of a hoax, it’s interesting to see that the basic pattern seems to mimic the picture book story: young boy can’t control himself and gets in trouble. Emotional, he tries to escape. (Family believes the real “escape” may have been a wildly fantastical, dangerous flight by balloon!) Finally, family reunites.

The real drama wasn’t inspired by a picture book, of course, but its outline shows the universality of the “Wild Things” story.  

Although it’s Sendak’s best-known picture book, he has other great ones. Others have also been controversial, although not necessarily because they might scare kids with pictures of monsters.

My own children preferred Sendak’s “In the Night Kitchen to “Where the Wild Things Are.” “Night Kitchen” was been banned because its impish boy hero, Mickey, is drawn naked. It also invites analysis of the  subconscious, but is less about fear and anger. (The balloon boy may also relate to Mickey’s homemade airplane.)

In my house, my young son also loved “Pierre,” about another oppositional boy who finds his match in a lion, who eats him.

So, of these Sendak titles, which is your favorite? For balloon boy Falcon Heene, it has to be a toss-up between “Wild Things” and “Night Kitchen,” doesn’t it?

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