Where the Monsters Live – Maurice Sendak – Kalandraka

On the night Max put on his wolf suit and started making mischief left and right, his mother called him: "MONSTER! And Max replied: - I'M GOING TO EAT YOU! Then she sent him to bed without dinner. That same night, in Max's room, a forest appeared...

First published in 1963, "Where the Monsters Live" caused some controversy for the far from exemplary way in which children were portrayed. Nevertheless, it has become a LIJ classic and an essential reference, being today one of the best-selling works ever, with translation into numerous languages.

Punished by his antics, going to bed without dinner, Max undertakes a symbolic journey from his bedroom to a fantastic place, crossing a mythical time/space and facing his fears. After becoming the king of monsters as fierce as they are friendly, he returns to the starting point, where dinner awaits him. A round trip, from reality to fiction, without anything or anyone explaining whether or not this metamorphosis was the product of a dream.

"Where the monsters live" is an example of an album illustrated by its perfect conjugation between word and image; A simple and poetic story, told with humor, maximum expressive economy and absolute harmony between text and illustrations. Everything comes together in this book, artistically thought out down to the smallest detail: the game with the layout, the format, the almost magical atmosphere that emerges from each page, the argumental tension and the combination of words, sounds and repetitions.

As the protagonist enters the dream world, the size of the illustrations continues to grow until the climax of the story, when the images occupy the entire page, and begin to shrink, from then on, accompanying Max in his return to the plane of reality.