President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama surprised 25 students from nearby Hyde Park school William H. Ray Elementary at the Obama Presidential Center's Chicago Public Library branch at 10:15 a.m. The Obamas came out to read Maurice Sendak's children's classic "Where the Wild Things Are" and spent about 24 minutes reading as well as taking pictures with the students and teachers afterwards. "Are you telling stories up in here?" President Obama said to the kids after walking into the main read

In a surprise appearance, the Obamas greeted the first 100 visitors to the Obama Presidential Center that first opened to the public on Juneteenth on Chicago's South Side. In awe, guests shook hands with former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama against the backdrop of a colorful, 38-foot-tall painting depicting a map of Chicago stretching to the ceiling – inspired by Carl Sandburg's 1914 poem about the city: "stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders."   The room is framed by