Kid Reads WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE to the Parents Who Once Read It to Her

Kina’s reading skills have improved dramatically this year, in a breathtaking sprint that now has her revisiting the hundred or so books we’ve spent her entire life reading to her. Among those books is my favorite of all time: Where the Wild Things Are.

The first time I mentioned Where the Wild Things Are was in September of 2020, as a mid-page headline on an issue otherwise dedicated to Kina’s “rage tutu”. We have read this book, in the last three years, countless times. I take great joy in reading it to her. Before we had Kina, when I imagined being a dad, the vision I had was of myself reading Where the Wild Things Are to my future kid.

What I did not envision was that she would someday read it to me, as we all sat on the living room floor late in the evening. I did not imagine that I would hear my own child sound out the word “mischief” (of one kind and another). I did not see what it would look like as she turned the pages. Now I know.

Kina didn’t finish the book; she was sleepy. I finished out the last few pages, but she read the last one herself: “and it was still hot.”I always think of that line as a reminder that, no matter how frustrated we get with each other, how far we sail from home, we can always return. Our love lasts.

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