I'm looking for the children's book with a cookie dough airplane.

June 3, 2005 11:11 PM

What's the title/author of the children's book where a kid makes an airplane out of cookie dough and goes exploring? If I remember correctly, the illustrations were quite plump and billowy.
posted by pmbuko to writing & language (12 comments total)

"In the Night Kitchen", by Maurice Sendak.
posted by hades at 11:16 PM on June 3, 2005

Hades has got it.

Large image of front cover

Amazon link
posted by filmgoerjuan at 12:50 AM on June 4, 2005

I'll always remember that book because the little boy is naked on one page and that was very thrilling and a little scandalous among the five-year-old set...
posted by SashaPT at 5:04 AM on June 4, 2005

Holy crap! I was just telling a friend about how I loved this book as a kid - but could never remember the title. I love ask.metafilter.
posted by philscience at 9:12 AM on June 4, 2005

I'm in the milk and the milk's in me!

Also, In the Night Kitchen is a Caldecott award winner, and it's frequently challenged, and there's an animated short version that's available, among other places, on the Where the Wild Things Are DVD.
posted by box at 12:05 PM on June 4, 2005

When I was a kid, we called it 'the heinie book'.
posted by xo at 1:58 PM on June 4, 2005

And the memories of youth flow back... In the Night Kitchen, Where the Wild Things Are, Ping, Five Chinese Brothers, that story about the steam-powered construction thing that got outpaced by the gas-powered ones but ended up saving the day as a boiler in the basement... Kids these days don't have anything like that.
posted by socratic at 2:58 PM on June 4, 2005

Oh wow! I remember this! As soon as you mentioned it I remembered it ... Wonderful!
posted by tomble at 3:42 PM on June 4, 2005

that story about the steam-powered construction thing that got outpaced by the gas-powered ones but ended up saving the day as a boiler in the basement

socratic: You're thinking of Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel.
posted by cerebus19 at 4:38 PM on June 4, 2005

Did we all have the same childhood? I think there's a tattered copy of each and every book mentioned in this thread tucked away in my parents house somewhere.
There's another one... Had to do with Krakatoa... I'm blanking on it...



<suddenly craves grilled cheese sandwiches and FreezerIce popsicle tube things....
posted by Jon-o at 11:20 PM on June 4, 2005

The Twenty-One Baloons by William Pene Dubois was that one. I was hoping I would get to answer the original post since I remember it so well, but this'll do nicely.
posted by wzcx at 11:34 PM on June 4, 2005

Thanks to everyone. My son will appreciate your help!
posted by pmbuko at 2:40 PM on June 5, 2005