Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Wild Things Are | Fantasy | Maurice Sendak | Caldecott Medal | ages 4-8 |

Max is a troublemaker and after causing mischief at home, his mom sends him to bed without dinner. That same night, a forest grew in his bedroom, and an ocean boat came for Max and took him to where the wild things are. When he arrived the wild things were roaring but Max was able to tame them and became their king. Later Max realizes he misses his home and decides to go back. After arriving home, in which the travel felt like a year, he finds himself in his room and a bowl of soup still hot that his mom prepared for him.

This award winning book for children has received so much recognition and as a reader we can see the beautiful illustrations as they grow bigger and bigger when Max's imagination grows. This is a good book to read to the class because it touches the power of imagination and we can even go over rules and expectations. I would use this book in an K-2nd grade setting because it's captivating and we can apply its themes easily into our classrooms. As a class, you can share with your students how we have used our imaginations as we are playing, creating stories, reading a book. We can even do our own exercise in which the whole class is with eyes closed and begin drifting off into their imagination and share with the class afterwards. To capture their imagination, they can also draw or write as they imagine exapnd their creativity in a healthy way.