--- title: Barack Obama at White House Easter Egg Roll Read Where Wild Things Are description: President Barack Obama made some incredible monster faces while reading Where The Wild Things Are at the White House Easter Egg Roll today. canonical: https://time.com/70570/heres-the-leader-of-the-free-world-making-monster-faces/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-21T18:22:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:48:42.976Z og:title: President Obama Makes Really Scary Monster Faces [PHOTOS] og:description: The dramatic reading of the Maurice Sendak classic is an annual tradition at the White House Easter Egg Roll og:url: https://time.com/70570/heres-the-leader-of-the-free-world-making-monster-faces/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Obama Makes Really Scary Monster Faces [PHOTOS] twitter:description: The dramatic reading of the Maurice Sendak classic is an annual tradition at the White House Easter Egg Roll twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Here's the Leader of the Free World Making Monster Faces  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Apr 21, 2014 6:22 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Apr 21, 2014 6:22 PM UTC President Barack Obama got really into character during his annual reading of Maurice Sendak’s _Where the Wild Things Are_ at the [Easter Egg Roll](http://time.com/58489/white-house-easter-egg-promo-roll/) on the South Lawn of the White House today. He pretended to be one of the wild things — growling, gnashing his teeth, and rolling his eyes. We imagine that one sees a lot of these scary faces in Washington, particularly during heated debates on Capitol Hill.  Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images  Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images  Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images **WATCH:** [White House Makes 90s Sitcom-Style Easter Egg Roll Promo with Jim Carrey and Ariana Grande](http://time.com/58489/white-house-easter-egg-promo-roll/) **MORE:** [A Brief History of the White House Easter Egg Roll](http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1890844,00.html) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/70570/heres-the-leader-of-the-free-world-making-monster-faces/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/70570/heres-the-leader-of-the-free-world-making-monster-faces/"},"headline":"Here's the Leader of the Free World Making Monster Faces","datePublished":"2014-04-21T18:22:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:48:42.976Z","description":"The dramatic reading of the Maurice Sendak classic is an annual tradition at the White House Easter Egg Roll","url":"https://time.com/70570/heres-the-leader-of-the-free-world-making-monster-faces/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Appreciation"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/70570/heres-the-leader-of-the-free-world-making-monster-faces/","name":"Here's the Leader of the Free World Making Monster Faces"}}]}] ```