Wild Things Teacher Guide
Wild Things Teacher Guide
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This F.I.L.M. curriculum for Where the Wild Things Are is structured for use in conjunction with watching the
movie and reading one or more of the books surrounding the movie. Where the Wild Things Are is a story for
all ages so this guide is also for all ages.
All discussion questions are written for a facilitator or older youth. The themes of many of these questions
are appropriate for all ages, but may need to be reworded when using with younger youth. The activity
pages marked with a pencil icon are appropriate for youth 11 and up.
The guide offers discussion topics, activities and service-project ideas. Exploring relationships, embracing
imagination and the importance of reading are key themes in this guide.
Synopsis
Innovative director Spike Jonze collaborates with celebrated author Maurice Sendak to bring one of the
most beloved books of all time to the big screen in Where the Wild Things Are, a classic story about childhood
and the places we go to figure out the world we live in.
The film tells the story of Max, a rambunctious and sensitive boy who feels misunderstood at home and
escapes to where the Wild Things are. Max lands on an island where he meets mysterious and strange
creatures whose emotions are as wild and unpredictable as their actions.
The Wild Things desperately long for a leader to guide them, just as Max longs for a kingdom to rule. When
Max is crowned king, he promises to create a place where everyone will be happy. Max soon finds, though,
that ruling his kingdom is not so easy and his relationships there prove to be more complicated than he
originally thought.
F.I.L.M. curriculum is made possible through the partnership of Heartland Truly Moving Pictures
and the National Collaboration for Youth. Heartland is a non-profit organization that seeks to
recognize and honor filmmakers whose work explores the human journey. The National Collaboration
for Youth is a non-profit organization providing a unified voice for its coalition of more than 50 national,
non-profit, youth development organizations, and concentrates on improving the conditions of youth
in the United States and enabling youth to realize their full capabilities.
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Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 3
The pencil icon designates pages of the curriculum that can be distributed to youth as worksheets.
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Objectives for Youth
• Explore different relationships
• Understand the power of imagination
• Engage others in reading
Reading Materials:
Where the Wild Things Are is based on the Caldecott Award-winning children’s picture book written and
illustrated by Maurice Sendak, published in 1963. This ten sentence book was developed into a feature
length film by director Spike Jonze and author Dave Eggers. Both men have created corresponding books
that can be read with this curriculum as well.
• Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, published by Harper Collins 1963
• Heads On and We Shoot – The Making Of Where The Wild Things Are from the editors of McSweeney’s
published by Harper Collins 2009
There are a number of articles available online that explore the process of bringing this celebrated children’s
book to the big screen. Search www.nytimes.com for Where the Wild Things Are to get started.
Step 2) Participate
Engage in a project within your community based on lessons learned in this curriculum. Project ideas are
included in the curriculum; there is also a free, downloadable service-learning supplement to assist in the
planning and managing of Where the Wild Things Are service projects. Please visit www.youthfilmproject.org/
resources.htm to download the supplement.
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In 1963 Harper Collins published Maurice Sendak’s book, Where the Wild Things Are. Sendak was just 35 years
old. Forty-six years after the publication of this memorable children’s book, Spike Jonze collaborated with
Sendak to bring this book to life. Although Sendak was a collaborator in the project, he encouraged Jonze to
make it his own.
Together, Jonze and author Dave Eggers wrote the screenplay for this remarkable film. It explores the same
themes that were in the book but expands on them, turning the ten original sentences of the book Where
the Wild Things Are into a feature length film.
This section looks at the life and work of Maurice Sendak, as well as explores how his book became a movie.
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Instructions:
Use the following section to learn more about Maurice Sendak and his body of work. Use the questions that follow
to look critically at his work and its evolution over the course of his career.
Maurice Sendak is a well-known children’s book author and illustrator who is probably best known for Where
the Wild Things Are, but his body of work is extensive. Not only was Sendak an illustrator and author, but he
also worked producing and designing operas later in his career.
He was born in New York in 1928 to Polish-Jewish immigrants and is said to have been a sickly child who
spent much of his time inside, which may have contributed to the imaginative worlds he created in his art.
Learn More
American Masters
www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/sendak_m.html
Sendak’s work explores themes that ring true with many people -- both children and adults. He explores
different themes and emotions that we all struggle with growing up. Unlike many children’s authors, Sendak
does not shy away from images and themes that might be scary.
Take an inventory of some of Maurice Sendak’s books and examine the images and stories that they
each contain. Then answer the questions on the following page. The following are just a few of the books
Sendak has written and illustrated throughout his career. Find his complete list of works at your school or
community library.
Kenny’s Window, 1956
Where the Wild Things Are, 1963
Higglety Pigglety Pop!, 1967
Seven Little Monsters, 1977
Outside Over There, 1981
Mommy?, 2006
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Discussion Questions:
• What are the key themes that link Sendak’s books together?
• Are there common images that appear throughout his books? What are they? Do his images evolve from
book to book? If so, in what way?
• Reading Sendak’s books might be a different experience as an adult than for a child. If you read any of his
books as a child, how does the message differ as an adult? Did you gain any new insights? What are they?
• If you choose to read some of Sendak’s books with your child or someone you mentor, are the messages
each of you take away from the book different? Discuss the differences in viewpoints with a younger
person after reading one or more of Sendak’s books together.
• What do you think of Sendak’s use of darker themes and emotions in his work? Do you believe it speaks
to children in a different way? What themes and emotions do you think children should be exposed to in
books, television and music as they develop? Why?
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Spike Jonze, director of Where the Wild Things Are, has multiple movies and music videos to his name.
Described as a kid at heart, Jonze set out to make the movie adaptation of one of the best loved children’s
books of all time. Taking a ten sentence book and turning it into a feature length film was a long journey
with an amazing end result.
The Q & A with visionary filmmaker Spike Jonze below is courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Beyond the pure adventure of a 9-year old boy running wild with giant creatures on an island,
what is this movie about?
It’s about childhood. It’s about what it’s like to be eight or nine years old and trying to figure out
the world, the people around you, and emotions that are sometimes unpredictable or confusing.
The way we relate to each other and imbue everything with our own emotional perspectives on
everything is insane. Once I knew I could write the wild emotions inside of everyone, then the book
was basically limitless.
I remember my mother reading it to me when I was four or five; I can still hear the inflection in her
voice. And I remember the creatures vividly. There’s something about Maurice’s work that invites you
into the world he creates and you feel as if you are Max. I always loved that book.
I had known Maurice for about ten years before we started making Where the Wild Things Are. He
knew how I felt about the book and it was his idea initially that I work on adapting it. Once we got
started, he was a fully involved producer on the film. He had based the book on themes and feelings
from his life and I was picking up what he created from his life, his childhood. I was picking up the
baton and it was going to have aspects of all our childhoods in there.
I had often asked myself what I could bring to the story in keeping with Maurice’s intention and it
finally hit me one day when I realized that the Wild Things are really the wild emotions in all of us. For
a child, they’re unpredictable and often uncontrollable and hard to understand. Even as an adult,
emotions and relationships are hard to process. After that, it became clear how I could take the
story further. There was such great potential in all of the Wild Things as characters and I felt that was
something I could add to the story and explore infinitely without trying to make it into something
else.
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How did you select author Dave Eggers to write the screenplay with you?
I started thinking about who I could write it with, who had the right taste, who I would enjoy being
with and collaborating with. I’d gotten to know Dave a few years prior, and he seemed like the
perfect combination in terms of his taste and the tone of his writing. There was humor and real
pathos, too.
First and foremost I was concerned with who Max was and what was going on in his life. I wanted to
make a movie that takes kids seriously. Just because they’re young doesn’t mean their feelings aren’t
as complex and deeply felt as any adult’s. Maurice also said, “Don’t just take the heavy side of the
kid seriously; take his imagination seriously, his sense of joy.” Overall, we wanted it to feel as if it was
being told by the characters themselves rather than some outside observer. We never set any rules
about whether it would be for kids or adults. We just went where it took us.
How did you cast the hero Max, and what does actor Max Records bring to it?
I wanted a real kid—not necessarily an actor who was going to give a ‘movie kid’ performance, but
someone who was going to give a real, emotional performance and I found that in Max Records after
a very long search. Max was my partner in making the heart of the movie come through. He is the
heart of the movie. He has a real depth to him as a person. It doesn’t feel at all like he’s acting, and
that was very important to me and to the story.
The movie combines live-action, puppetry and digital animation. What was the idea that brought
these techniques together?
It was important that this feel like a real adventure and not a fantasy, so Max had to be a real kid in a
natural environment, which is why we shot so much of the action on location. I also wanted to build
and shoot the Wild Things so that Max could touch them, lean on them, shove them, hug them. I
wanted them to be there so people could feel their breath, their size and their weight in a visceral
and immediate way and I couldn’t imagine doing that wholly in a computer or on a soundstage.
CGI allowed us to give the creatures the full range of facial expression in post-production, based on
footage of our voice actors’ performances.
A lot of movies that have voice performers often record each actor individually in a sound booth
and so the actors don’t get to interact with each other. But it was important to me that we captured
the spontaneity of what they did in the moment. So we got all the voice actors together and acted
out the whole movie on a soundstage over a period of three weeks. We had Lauren Ambrose, Chris
Cooper, James Gandolfini, Catherine O’Hara, Forest Whitaker, Paul Dano and Michael Berry acting out
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their roles as the Wild Things, wrestling and shouting at each other on a bare stage with Styrofoam
cubes standing in for rocks and trees. Later, the Australian actors wearing the Wild Things costumes
on location would watch footage from the voice recording and mirror what the voice actors did.
They took the essence of what they were doing and adapted it to what the costumes could do. But
everything started with the voice performances.
I knew it was going to be a complicated process. It seemed that every choice we made turned out to
be the hardest possible way to do it. Building the creatures alone took eight months, and there were
a lot of logistical challenges. But we decided what we wanted it to feel like and worked backwards
from there on how to achieve that, and we stuck to it. In the end, I love that we did it the way we did
it. We didn’t do it the easy way, but we would always find a way, and we made the movie we set out
to make. And I love the movie we made. It’s us.
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Director Spike Jonze talks about Where the Wild Things Are by saying, “It’s about what it’s like to be eight or
nine years old and trying to figure out the world, the people around you ... The way we relate to each other
and imbue everything with our own emotional perspectives on everything is insane.”
Where the Wild Things Are focuses heavily on relationships—those relationships that Max has with his Mom
and sister, the relationships he forms with each of the Wild Things and the relationships that the Wild Things
form with one another.
The following section looks at the different relationships in the movie and the way people develop
relationships in their own life.
Use the following section with any age group to discuss how different relationships impact us all differently.
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As Where the Wild Things Are begins, Max is struggling with relationships within his family. He wants to be a
part of his sister’s life, but he gets left behind. He wants to be a part of his mom’s life, but his mom is really busy.
These are emotions that many children deal with as they grow up and figure out how they fit in and where.
Use the questions below to discuss these emotions with youth.
Discussion Questions:
• Do you understand how Max felt when his sister’s friends crushed his snow fort? What do you think Max
was most upset about? Was he mad that his fort was crushed? Was he scared?
• How do you think Max’s sister’s friends should have treated Max when he began to cry? Why do you believe
his sister left, saying that Max would be fine?
• After Max’s sister and her friends left, why do you believe Max acted out in the way he did? Think about the
things he destroyed in his sister’s room. Why do you think he focused on those objects in particular?
• Do you have a sibling or person in your life who you want to spend more time with but sometimes have
trouble being friends with, like Max with his sister Claire? What are some ways you have tried to be a friend
to them?
• For older youth or those who have younger siblings, how did Max’s interaction with his sister and her
friends impact you? Based on Max’s reaction to feeling left out by this group of older kids, how might you
reconsider the way you interact with your younger siblings or other young people in your life?
• Think about Max’s relationship with his mother. How do Max and his mother help each other? In what ways
does Max help make his mother’s day better? What things does his mom do to help make Max feel better
after he destroys Claire’s room?
• Although Max, his mother and sister all love one another, what are some things they experience that
demonstrate that it is sometimes hard to be a family?
• Can you identify with Max’s relationship to his mom and sister? In what ways?
• Max struggles to accept that his mom has a boyfriend. Can you understand what Max is going through in the
movie? Have you ever experienced the same frustration and confusion as Max? How did you deal with it?
• By the end of the film, what lessons do you think Max learns about family?
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ACTIVITY
When Max runs away and ends up in the land of the Wild Things, he encounters lots of new friends but has
very different relationships with each of them. The Wild Things, although they aren’t human, have very human
relationships with one another and with Max.
Instructions:
Next to each of pictures below describe the character in the space provided Be sure to include the character’s
traits, personality and relationship to others. As a group, discuss the questions that follow.
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ACTIVITY
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Discussion Questions:
• Why do you think Max identified with the Wild Things so much? What did each of them teach Max? How?
• What personality, characteristics and thoughts does each Wild Thing share with different people in Max’s
normal life?
• Why do you believe Max gravitated to Carol when he first met him as he destroyed the homes of the other
Wild Things? Why do you think Max wanted to help?
• Did you identify with KW and Carol’s friendship? How? Have you ever gone through the same thing that Carol
goes through in his anger, frustration and loneliness as his friendships with both KW and Max change?
• If you were in Carol’s situation, how would you deal with it?
• What do the Max and the Wild Things help you understand about friendship?
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No matter what age people are, a common emotion that many share is the desire to fit in. Use the following
excerpt of the script of Where the Wild Things Are to discuss fitting in and being like others.
To begin, select someone to be Max, KW, Bob and Terry, and then have them act out the following scene for
the rest of the group.
The owls fly overhead. KW throws rocks at them. The rocks hit the owls and knock them out of the sky.
They fall to the beach. KW picks them up and shows them to Max. They look a little disoriented.
KW: They love it when I do this to them. This is Bob and Terry.
KW: Bob, Terry, this is Max, he’s the biter I told you about.
KW: Yeah.
KW: They say it’s better for you if you can ask the question in seven words.
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MAX: Okay... (starts counting with his fingers)
How. Do. I. Make. Everyone. (looks at the two fingers he has left)
O. Kay.
They squeak.
KW: Wow, they really get to the heart of it, don’t they?
KW: Aren’t they great? What if they came and lived with us? Bob, Terry, why don’t you come
live with us?
They squeak.
KW: Oh good! Right, Max? At least they’ll try it and come spend the night.
* Excerpted from Where the Wild Things Are script, written by Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers,
courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Discussion Questions:
• How do you think Max feels when he asks Bob and Terry a question?
• When KW brings Bob and Terry back to the other Wild Things, why do you believe they act like they hear
Bob and Terry?
• Have you ever felt like Max did, confused but played along so no one would know you didn’t understand
something? As a group, discuss everyone’s memories of experiences where they tried to fit in and how they
felt in that circumstance.
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Where the Wild Things Are is a film about emotions running wild and the way Max deals with these emotions.
In many interviews with Spike Jonze about the film he expresses his realization about how to make the
movie, Where the Wild Things Are. In an article with GQ, Jonze says at first, “I turned it [Where the Wild Things
Are] down because I had no idea what I could add to it.” Years later he says he had a realization, “It just hit
me that wild things could be wild emotions. It was that simple of an idea. And all of the sudden, it seemed
infinite where I could go from there.”
Read the entire article, “Spike Jonze Will Eat You Up” by Chris Heath for GQ online at www.gq.com/
entertainment/movies-and-tv/200909/spike-jonze-dave-eggers-where-the-wild-things-are
Adult and children alike can relate to emotions running wild. Everyone experiences life in different ways and
everyone reacts to those experiences differently.
Use the following section to explore the ways in which we all deal with emotions as they run wild, no matter
where we are in life.
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In Where The Wild Things Are, Max experiences many different emotions, from trying to figure out how he
fits in with his family to trying to figure out how he fits in with the Wild Things. In addition, the Wild Things
manifest many emotions as they struggle with some issues that Max faces and some of their own.
Throughout the movie there are probably several emotions with which you identify. In an interview with GQ
Magazine, director Spike Jonze speaks about emotions and how they inspired the movie.
Read the following excerpt from the GQ article by Chris Heath, “Spike Jonze Will Eat You Up.” Discuss with
your group, using the questions that follow, all the different types of emotions we experience on a daily
basis and how we deal with those emotions differently.
As a kid, that was really scary and confusing—both the wild emotions in me and the wild emotions in
the people around me. Unpredictable emotions, positive or negative—you don’t know where they’re
coming from, you don’t know what they mean. Especially negative emotions. Your own behavior—
you don’t know why you’re acting a certain way and it scares you, or you don’t know why somebody
else is acting a certain way and it scares you. Big emotions that are unexplained are really scary. At
least to me. I guess it’s anger, or sadness, guilt—or guilt for being angry, you know. Just the whole big
mess that we’re sort of thrown into. Emotions are messy and hard to figure out. Hard to know where
you start and the next person stops. Even as an adult, that’s a hard thing to know. As a kid it can be
really confusing, because it’s all new and you’re trying to sort of make your map.
Excerpted from “Spike Jonze Will Eat You Up” by Chris Heath for GQ. Find online, www.gq.com/
entertainment/movies-and-tv/200909/spike-jonze-dave-eggers-where-the-wild-things-are
Discussion Questions:
• Are your emotions ever unpredictable? How do you deal with your different emotions?
• Are your feelings always caused by something or do you simply feel sad or happy sometimes, without being
able to explain why?
• How do you try to control your emotions? Do you sometimes have emotions that you can not control? How
does this make you feel?
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ACTIVITY
Use this to further explore emotions and how everyone deals with them differently.
Instructions: Think about all the emotions you experience in a normal day and record the details of these emotions
to get a better understanding what things make you feel a certain way and why.
This is the way I feel when: Things that change the way I feel:
Example: Silly
Sad
Excited
Hesitant
Confident
Scared
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In Where the Wild Things Are, Max travels to the land of the Wild Things and encounters creatures that are
very different from anything he knows. He also finds a land that is much different than the place where he
lives with his family.
As a group, use the following questions to discuss the differences between Max’s life at home and where he
finds himself with the Wild Things.
Discussion Questions:
• Do you think that Max imagined the land of the Wild Things or do you believe he really traveled there? Why?
• Have you ever wished you lived in a different world? What would it be like? How would it be different from
your life here?
• What are the differences between where Max lives with his sister and mother and where he finds himself
with the Wild Things? Why do you think these places are so different?
• What would you describe the Wild Things as? Are they animals, monsters, people?
• When Max arrives in the land of the Wild Things as king, they all build a new place to live together, like the
world Carol imagined. Why do you think Max and the Wild Things were building the type of place to live
that they planned? What significance did different features have, such as a place that wouldn’t let in anybody
who didn’t belong?
• Max ruled as king in the land of the Wild Things. Why do you think they made Max king?
• Why does Max tell everyone he is a king? Is this the same as lying even though it is only his imagination?
• Carol asks Max what his first order of business is as king, to which Max replies, “Let the wild rumpus start!”
What would you do if you were the king or queen of your own land?
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ACTIVITY
Max travels to a land very different from the one he knows. It is full of new creatures, new abilities, new
friends, and it is a place where Max rules as king. Use your imagination to create a world where you would
like to live.
Instructions: Use the space below to draw an imaginary world where you would most like to live. Explain why
you made the world you did on the following page. Be sure to include descriptions of what the people are like in
this imaginary world, what powers, if any, people have, and the seasons of this world.
my world is called:
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ACTIVITY
Use this page to explain the world you created on the previous page.
Activity Extension
Carol makes an amazing 3-D world he imagines in Where the Wild Things Are. Take this opportunity to create
your very own 3-D world. You can make one out of just about anything, but a fun idea is to build a terrarium.
A terrarium is a miniature landscape that holds living plants and can sometimes even hold living things, like
bugs or small reptiles.
You can find resources to start building your own terrarium at www.thegardenhelper.com/terrarium.html
and www.stormthecastle.com/terrarium.
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Where the Wild Things Are is a fantastic book and movie to use to get youth thinking about relationships with
family and friends, emotions that we all have, the power of imagination and more. Since the book is so well-
known and so many people, both young and old, have been impacted by reading it, it is a perfect book to
use to get more young people reading at an early age.
Use the following section as a resource for a service project based around themes in Where the Wild Things
Are. Encourage youth and adults to get involved in their schools and communities by reaching out to others
through these community service suggestions or others found in Finding Inspiration in Literature & Movies
curriculum.
Use the Service-Learning Supplement developed in partnership between Finding Inspiration in Literature
& Movies and Youth Service America, downloadable online www.youthFILMproject.org under the Youth
Resources tab.
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Max is a young boy, struggling with the things that all young people do. He’s exploring each of his emotions
and learning to fit in. His mother, sister and all of the Wild Things each help Max learn something new about
the world and about himself.
You can have just as much impact in the life of a child. Use the suggestions below to reach out and mentor a
young person.
• Reading at any age is important and it’s books like Where the Wild Things Are that are accessible and identifiable.
They open up new worlds for children that help embrace the importance of reading.
Visit Reading Rockets, a national multimedia project offering information and resources on how young
kids learn to read, why so many struggle, and how caring adults can help, to gather resources to help
young people in your life read. Reading Rockets has developed a Family Literacy Bag especially for Where
the Wild Things Are. Download the Reading Rockets guide to use with young people at www.readingrock
ets.org/article/33292.
• When Max first arrives in the land of the Wild Things and is king, his first command is to, “Let the wild rumpus
start!” Start a wild rumpus of your own. Decide what kind of rumpus would work best in your community or
school and have the kids plan an event where a kid can truly be a kid. As a group, develop games to play,
dances to enjoy and music to create in an environment that makes all kids feel like they can just be a kid.
• Like the Wild Things helped Max sort through his emotions by simply being a kid, be a friend or mentor
to someone in that very same way. Sign up with your local Big Brothers Big Sisters program or reach out to
another mentoring organization in your community to learn how you can become involved in someone’s
life as a positive influence.
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Dear Group Facilitator,
Please take a few moments to answer the questions in the evaluation for the Where the Wild Things Are
Discussion Guide at www.youthFILMproject.org and click on “Evaluations.”
We value your feedback, and your comments and stories can help inspire others and keep the FILM Project
alive.
Please visit www.youthFILMproject.org at the completion of this curriculum and tell us what you think. You
can also send your stories to [email protected].
Sincerely yours,
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