Celebrating Maurice Sendak on His Birthday!
Happy birthday to Maurice Sendak today, beloved author and Caldecott-winning illustrator. To be honest, I am not sure why I remembered that today is Maurice Sendak’s birthday. I am normally bad at remembering most people’s birthdays, but particularly bad at authors (note how I keep forgetting Dr. Seuss!). Thankfully, I read about his birthday somewhere and stuck in a blog placeholder. He is one of our favorite picture book authors and I noticed that both my girls and little boy love it — a tough feat to pull off!
To celebrate, I thought I would list our Top 5 favorite books of his. What are yours? Please share!
5. In the Night Kitchen
Admittedly, I don’t totally get this picture book, but I checked it out of the library one day and my kids liked it.
4.Alligators All Around
This sweet alphabet book can be sung as a story as well as just read aloud.
3. Chicken Soup with Rice
My oldest child’s first grade teacher used a huge version of this book as the basis for a song and dance routine. It also helped them learn the months of the year. Nice bonus!
2.Little Bear series by Else Homelund Minarik, illustrated by Maurice Sendak
I love, love, love the Little Bear series and it wouldn’t have the same charm without Sendak’s Caldecott Award-Winning illustrations. Technically this series is an Easy Reader, not a picture book but I am not a librarian so I am not so hung up on that.
1.Where The Wild Things Are
Ah! It a classic that I loved as a child and my kids do too! I love that when multi-generations love the same book. It is a perfect picture book in every way possible. One note, though there isn’t much text on the pages, the book has a more difficult “literacy” rating than you’d think because of the advanced vocabulary.
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My books:
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
- ⭐ Starred review from School Library Journal!
- Junior Library Guild Gold selection
- Massachusetts Book Award Long List
- dPICTUS 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023
- Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
- 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist
- Green Earth Book Award Long List
- Nautilus Silver Winner, Nonfiction Children’s Picture Book
- Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids
Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Scholastic / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Thanks for the post! It inspired me to plan a wild rumpus for my kids. (I linked your article in my blog post.)
Thanks again!
To Laurie,
Your kids are so lucky! A wild rumpus sounds so fun. Thank you so much for the link.