Gossip from the Girls' Room by Rose Cooper

It's lyrical and unexpected, and each page does exactly what a picture book should – it surprises and delights.'Ģ. 'But I still loved them,' she writes, describing the book as 'an epic that manages to combine fear, courage, love, and loneliness in less than 350 words and 40 pages. While Rose Green, a US editor, says: 'No childhood is complete without a Wild Rumpus! The quintessential story of losing your cool, taming your monsters, and coming back home to find your supper is still hot.' Ireland-based author Clara Kumagai recalls how, reading the story as a child, the monsters scared her. 'It understands childhood, the angry child, the attraction of power and the immensity of maternal love.' Quek Hong Shin, the Singapore-based children's author and illustrator, describes it as, 'a great children's book about anger, self-discovery, and a mother's love for a child'. 'If I was leaving for a desert island and there was only one book to take away, it would be this one,' says Marie Wabbes of the Belgian Francophone section of the International Board On Books for Young People (IBBY). It is a fable that is both dark and ultimately uplifting. First published in 1963, and still loved all over the world, Maurice Sendak's powerful, stunningly illustrated book tells the tale of Max as he goes on a journey of discovery, encountering the 'wild things'. With its perfect symbiosis of words and pictures, the classic Where the Wild Things Are topped our poll of 100 greatest children's books. Where the Wild Things Are (words and illustrations by Maurice Sendak, 1963)

Gossip from the Girls' Room by Rose Cooper