Which 1970 children's picture book by Maurice Sendak was challenged for its depiction of a naked boy?

The 1970 children’s picture book by Maurice Sendak challenged for depicting a naked boy was In the Night Kitchen.

The story follows Mickey, a young child who falls from his bed into a surreal dream kitchen where three bakers are preparing the morning cake. During the dream, Mickey loses his pajamas and appears nude in several illustrations before returning to bed at dawn.

Sendak’s artwork treats the nudity as part of a child’s dreamlike adventure rather than as sexual material. Even so, some parents, librarians, and school communities objected to the visible buttocks and genitals. Critics also read possible symbolic or sexual meanings into the giant milk bottle and flowing liquids, though those interpretations remain disputed.

The book was published by Harper & Row in 1970 and received a Caldecott Honor in 1971. It is often confused with Sendak’s more famous Where the Wild Things Are, but the two books are separate parts of a loosely connected trilogy about psychological development. In the Night Kitchen has remained a frequent target of challenges and censorship lists.