Where the Wild Things Are

A pocket Odysseus, Max promptly sets sail:

And he sailed off through night and day

and in and out of weeks

and almost over a year

to where the wild things are.

Maurice Sendak, like Roald Dahl, wrote children's books that were real as imagined danger, uncertainty and fear comprise a large part of childhood as everyone knows. Sendak's stories and illustrations simply are amazing, something yours truly never tires of re reading from time to time when one wants to revisit one's childhood from the "safe" perspective of being an adult. 

Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is another gem whereby dangers lurk in the pursuit of a cherished prize offered by the sly host, Willie Wonka, the purveyor of the finest chocolate in the world. 

This quote says it all in why books like these matter...

“Dear Mr. Sendak,” read one, from an 8-year-old boy. “How much does it cost to get to where the wild things are? If it is not expensive, my sister and I would like to spend the summer there.”