Maurice Sendak
Recognized in the Creative Minds Montessori 2026 Teacher’s Choice list.
Maurice Sendak is one of roughly one hundred authors whose work was selected by the Montessori-certified teachers at Creative Minds Montessori for the 2026 Teacher’s Choice list — 120 books chosen across four reading stages, from first lap-reads to first chapter books. The selected book was chosen for how precisely it meets children at a real developmental moment. This recognition cannot be bought: no author or publisher paid to appear on our lists, and we take no commission on any book sale.
About Maurice Sendak
Maurice Sendak (1928–2012) was the towering figure of twentieth-century picture books — Caldecott Medalist, Hans Christian Andersen and Laura Ingalls Wilder honoree — who insisted childhood's dark and wild feelings belonged on the page.
A sickly Brooklyn childhood spent watching other kids from his window, plus the shadow of relatives lost in the Holocaust, shaped his conviction that children already know fear — Where the Wild Things Are simply told them the truth, and let them come home to warm supper.
Also by this author: In the Night Kitchen · Outside Over There · The Nutshell Library
Official legacy site: www.sendakfoundation.org
Selected for the 2026 Teacher’s Choice list
Part of The Best Children’s Books by Age, chosen by the teachers at Creative Minds Montessori in Frisco, TX.