One of my favorite children's books is Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. I used to ask my mom to read this story to me over and over. It was also one of her favorite stories.
I still have the copy of this book that I had when I was a child. As you can see from the pictures below, the book is well-used and well-loved. I used packing tape to laminate the book a couple of years ago in an effort to preserve it for a few more years.
The inside front cover of this book is fun because it has my name written by me and by my mother. When Mom wrote my name it was during the time that my name was spelled Jôn (with a circumflex over the o). This is one of the few places that show my name spelled this way. (Side Note: the birthday cake on my lap as my blog profile image is another place.)
When I was on my mission, I found a miniature copy of the book in German.
In the summer of 1996, I asked Mom to record some stories from her childhood on a cassette recorder. In addition to telling stories of her childhood, she recorded herself reading this book. I digitized her recording and created the YouTube video that is included below.
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| front cover |
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| inside the front cover name in red ink written by Carolyn Jasperson name in blue ink written by me |
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| title page showing 1970 printing |
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| German version |
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| me holding the German version to show size perspective |
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