The main character is a young boy named Mickey who, while sleeping in his bed, is disturbed by noise on a lower floor. The book drew controversy in the US due to depictions of nudity.

It was adapted into a five-minute animated short film on Janudirected by Gene Deitch and released by Weston Woods. It was a Caldecott Honor recipient in 1971.

In the Night Kitchen has been described by Sendak as part of a trilogy of books based on psychological development from In the Night Kitchen (toddler) to Where the Wild Things Are (pre-school) to Outside Over There (pre-adolescent). The book depicts a young boy's dream journey through a surreal baker's kitchen where he assists in the creation of a cake to be ready by the morning. That is how a free society keeps censorship from becoming the norm.In the Night Kitchen is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak, first published in hardcover in 1970 by Harper and Row. But they should allow other people the freedom to read controversial materials and to make up their own minds about its content. Readers do not have to like Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen. It is something to think about when people begin demanding the removal of books from shelves in order to “protect the children.” Individuals who begin challenging and banning books may one day find that they have given their ideological opposites the same power and authority. Just because one group or ideology is in favor at one point in time does mean they will stay there. The perhaps annoying thing about protecting the right to read is that individuals ultimately will have to defend the existence of books and materials they personally dislike or think harmful or problematic, in order to ensure that they do not set a precedent for the banning of books. The rest of society, including other parents, teachers, or librarians, cannot be responsible for attempting to “protect” children from books they personally deem harmful because doing so infringes upon the rights of others to read a book and make up their own minds about its content. It is ultimately the responsibility of parents to oversee what their children are reading and to help them select developmentally-appropriate books. In a free society, a few individuals should not be able to hold enough power to prevent everyone from reading or accessing a book. While some parents might not want their children to view an unclad child, censorship of a book can never be the answer. As a result, the book has been frequently challenged by concerned adults. In the process, he loses his clothing, and is depicted as fully nude in the illustrations (including his front side). Maurice Sendak’s 1970 picture book In the Night Kitchen follows the adventures of a young boy who helps some bakers make a cake before morning.

In the night kitchen pictures