Where the Wild Things Are A Caldecott Award Winner

Maurice Sendak's Max gets sent to bed without supper for being wild, and instead of just fuming about it, his imagination carries him off to a land of enormous, strange monsters, culminating in the triumphant roar that kicks off what the book calls "the wild rumpus." This particular edition is a compact RP Minis printing at just 16 pages, released as an anniversary edition of the original 1963 book — a small-format keepsake rather than a classic-size picture book. It's catalogued here for ages 10 to 13, but that number is worth questioning: a 16-page picture book about being punished and sent to your room reads as material for a much younger child, and a preschooler or early-elementary kid is the more natural fit.

What carries the book is the illustration work — Sendak's monsters are drawn fearsome yet curiously vulnerable, which lets a child feel the thrill of danger without it tipping into something actually frightening. Underneath that, the story takes a kid's anger and need to run wild seriously instead of just correcting it, then lets Max find his way back to the comfort and unconditional love waiting at home. A Caldecott Award winner, and a good pick for a family in the middle of a defiant streak or a rough bedtime stretch, one that treats a tantrum as worth understanding rather than just stopping.