Review by Booklist Review
Quiet Eleanor adores the wild outdoors, and she's certain that she has a bit of wildness inside her, too. After falling asleep with a spray of flowers in her hand, she dreams of nature coming indoors, from a heap of bunnies joining her in bed to a family of squirrels investigating the quaint kitchen. As grass sprouts from the flooring and pops out of the teapot, Eleanor can feel the wildness growing inside her until she can no longer hold it in. It's time for fluttering, for howling, for pouncing, for snacks. But when all the wildness has been released, she's ready to take a warm bath, climb into a comfy bed, and drift off to sleep, content in the knowledge that she's a wild thing, too. This beautiful book is an inspiring and comforting read, exuding a wonderful warmth that makes the world feel safe to explore. Fantastical illustrations brim with cozy details and fanciful notions; an enormous snoozing bear serving as a sofa just feels right. A gorgeous guide to finding the wildness within.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Nature-based play unleashes a sense of possibility in this meditative picture book about a wilderness-lover's path to embracing the "something/ wild inside of her,// waiting to come out." After a night of dreams featuring "things with fur and fin," rhythmic text describes the way nature begins to seep into young Eleanor's routine. Breakfast occurs on a couch visualized as a large brown bear, and a moment spent quietly gives way to less constrained wishes: "She wanted to be noisy!/ She wanted to be free./ She wanted to be wilder/ than she was supposed to be." Eleanor next takes flight via monarch wings, and Winfield Martin (The Imaginaries) charts the ensuing day with alliterative verbs as well as delicate artwork that emphasizes the child's creaturely connections. (The pale-skinned figure's two dark eyes peer out from a blanket fort as a deer looks on.) Employing a mix of colored pencil, gouache, and acrylic, subtly surrealistic renderings mingle natural and human elements for an effect that gestures toward Eleanor's psychological transformation. A suitably untamed bedtime sequence winds down, yielding a thoroughly heartening portrait of a child abandoning inhibition. Ages 3--7. (Jan.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1--In this delightful rhyming picture book, young Eleanor invites the wilderness into her home and heart. The text is lyrical and buoyant. As the story progresses, she becomes more and more wild, howling with wolves in the hallway, eating with foxes and rabbits at the kitchen table, then coloring on walls, building a makeshift den out of pillows and blankets, and leaping down the staircase. Homage is paid to Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are in several scenes and in the title. And like Sendak's In the Night Kitchen, Eleanor (pale skin, with brown hair) is naked in one scene (in the bathtub). VERDICT An excellent read-aloud for young children at home with a parent or older sibling, this book inspires a love of nature and a healthy disregard for all that is prim and proper.--Benjamin Ludwig
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
After the Wild arrives, Eleanor transforms into the wild thing she knew was hidden inside. Adult readers who see the phrase "wild things" will likely think back to Maurice Sendak'sWhere the Wild Things Are (1963). Indeed, this lush work pays tribute to that celebrated tale. Besides emotionally resonant elements such as Eleanor's wolf stuffie or a bed set amid a verdant forest, both books offer profound meditations on what it means to embrace the "wild inside." One night, pale-skinned, dark-haired Eleanor dreams of the "things with fur and fin," and when she awakens, foliage and forest creatures are streaming through her window. Mimicking the animals gives her the courage to be who she's always longed to be, to draw her "own kind of tracks," to howl and be "noisy" and "free." Martin's language rises like a crescendo, starting out with timid statements that become increasingly bold as Eleanor joyously rewilds. After a leap and tumble toward a chandelier--or perhaps the moon?--the tired, satiated child heads to bed, where a parental-like figure offers reassuring words of love. The wild slips away, but Eleanor has changed. She's smudged, leaf-covered, and newly "bloomed." Luscious full-bleed spreads are graceful and expansive. Natural tones, especially springy greens, seem rife with possibility, while the visiting animals are charmingly bestial. Every aspect, like a bunny barrette hinting at Eleanor's untamed potential, feels nuanced and purposeful. A dreamy homage that's its own budding classic.(Picture book. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
