Okay, this is a non-typical recommendation for a kids book. My 18 month old son loves In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak (author of Where the Wild Things Are). He carries it around, he refers to it even when it is no where in sight (the Mickey book!), he stares at each page with complete focus. So on the kid side, its a winner. On my side of the equation, while it doesn’t make me want to stick a fork in my eye, the story is a strange one and I find the pictures weird. If my son didn’t love it so very much, I wouldn’t recommend it at all, but clearly it strikes a chord with him. And while the story doesn’t make sense, it is not boring, so this squeaks into the ‘recommended’ column.
Hi Lina!
Just found your blog! so interesting! Actually “In the Night Kitchen” was a favorite of mine growing up, and is now a favorite for Ella and Max. It’s a story about dreaming, so yeah, it’s pretty weird but I found it was instructive when they get into a scary dream phase… I like how the message (in my opinion) is about taking control of your dreams (ie. when Mickey pipes up and demands that he’s not actually bread batter). Anyway, hope you’re well!