Picture Books Post #2

Title: Where the Wild Things Are
Author/Illustrator: Maurice Sendak
Lauren's Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Where the Wild Things Are is an adventure story about a boy named Max who gets in trouble with his mom and gets sent to his room without dinner.  He creates this crazy world with wild creatures where he is the king and all of these creatures do everything that he says. At the end, he smells something good so he goes back to his world and his mother left his dinner waiting for him.

I read this book because it is a classic and it won the Caldecott Medal. I find this story to be amazing. Firstly, the little boy in the story is very relatable to boys that age. He has a huge imagination and wants to create mischief in his house. The boy's imagination is extraordinary and I think that children would want to dive into their imagination after reading this. To tell a child that he or she is in charge of their own imagination is important. I also love how the illustration in the beginning of the book is small but as the boy's imagination grows, the pictures grow larger and larger, until the whole page is filled! The creatures have that scary quality to them, but are not terrifying which is perfect for some children that want scary things and others who would not. I would definitely remind this book, especially to any children that wants to be crazy! The book sends a message that sometimes the fun and mischief has to happen in your head, rather than in person!

Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: 1963
ISBN: 0-06-025493-9