In the Child Lit category, I select WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE by MAURICE SENDAK (1963):
I loved this book as a child, and read it to my own boys many times. I can almost recite the whole thing now. The illustrations are fantastic, and the story has a lyrical flow.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_the_Wild_Things_Are
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak is a children's picture book originally published by Harper & Row. The book is about the imaginary adventures of a young boy named Max, who is punished for "making mischief" by being sent to his room without supper. Max wears a distinctive wolf suit during his adventures and encounters various mythical creatures, the wild things. Although just ten sentences long, the book is generally regarded as a classic of American illustrated children's literature.
Written in 1963, it was awarded the Caldecott Medal in 1964. [1] It also won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and was an ALA Notable Book.
Francis Spufford suggests that the book is "one of the very few picture books to make an entirely deliberate, and beautiful, use of the psychoanalytic story of anger"