About four years ago, I read Where the Wild Things Are for a class, and Maurice Sendak changed the way I thought about Children's Literature. I guess you could say he made me start to think about Children's Literature. Never before had I seen an author treat his young audience with such respect, or write and illustrate short stories packed with such worth.

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"Max stepped into his private boat and waved good-bye and sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day and into the night of his very own room where he found his supper waiting for him...and it was still hot." 

--Where the Wild Things Are

Rest in peace, Mr. Sendak. Thank you for getting me to where I am.

"As the Civil War came to a close, many African American children had brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers who had been sold to other plantations, sometimes far away. A lot of families took to the road to find these relatives...I wanted to tell the story of one such family."

--A.LaFaye

This is currently my favorite children's book. It tells the story you never hear. The one that you should hear. 

Also, the illustrations are pretty awesome.

I had the honor of personally getting to know Alexandria a bit this summer when she taught one of my classes. She's incredibly smart and has the most adorable little daughter, Adia. Alexandria quickly became one of my favorite professors.

She's a wonderful teacher, a wonderful person and a wonderful writer and every time I read this book I cry in that good, passion-eyed, full soul way. Go buy yourself a copy. You can also find it online with Barnes and Noble or Amazon.

Read it to a child. Read it to everyone. Share it a lot. I'd love to see this book get the full recognition it deserves.