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

Daddy barely able to process this literary milestone

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.

dad