In my mind, Where the Wild Things Are is easily one of the greatest picture books ever published, and it meant a lot to me as a kid. The book had a special kind of understanding of children that other books just didn’t have, and it was willing to treat its readers as actual human beings, flaws and raw emotion included. Where the Wild Things Are saw a great deal of difficulty in initial publication due to its content, and I’m almost surprised it won the Caldecott when it did. I’m curious to see how well it fits the criteria put forth at the time.