Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
When, in 1918, a clerk erroneously ordered twelve times the number of children’s books intended, Western Publishing Company may have faced ruin. Instead, the company persuaded Woolworth’s department stores to sell it, a practice unusual since children’s books were normally only sold during the holiday season. Years later, in the 1930s, one publishing novice was
I found a lovely illustrated copy of The Little Red Hen by Heather Forest and illustrated by Susan Gaber. The hen doesn’t share the cake at the end, so the reader gets the lesson (unlike in some versions). I appreciate it when the lesson is taught in this type of traditional tale. The dog, cat,
Is there a movie from your childhood that you recall watching over and over and over again? One that you think of, still, with fondness? For me, that movie was Mary Poppins. In 2007, I read A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh and loved it along with the movie; they both have their merits. So this year, I
I can finally recommend something related to the Three Cups of Tea story. Remember how I hated listening to the audiobook of Three Cups of Tea, which felt like a journalistic report despite being called a memoir? My mother loved Three Cups of Tea and thought it was wonderful, so I enlisted her help in
This year’s winner of the Caldecott Medal is The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson, illustrated by Beth Krommes. When I asked the librarian to help me locate it (it was misshelved), she told me she didn’t like it; its illustrations were too dark. I wasn’t sure, then, what I’d think of The
David Wiesner has been awarded the Caldecott Medal three times and the Caldecott Honor twice. While his award-winning picture books are a bit out of my comfort level (for they have very words), Wiesner is able to carry stories with only illustration. In November, The Well-Read Child did a highlight of books like this: How
In the picture book Love You Forever, Robert Munsch captures every mother’s feelings of unconditional love. I can’t read it without my eyes tearing, and I love the tender expressions of love. But I wonder if children like it.
There was no doubt that John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (reviewed here) was written to teach both children and adults lessons about Christianity and life; there was little attempt to veil the message behind the story. While the message in modern children’s literature may not be so thinly veiled, to me it seems obvious that authors
In the history of western children’s literature, after Pilgrim’s Progress came Isaac Watt’s elegies for children, Divine Songs. But while Pilgrim’s Progress was actually intended for adults and children learned from it, Divine Songs was intended to be for children. And while Pilgrim’s Progress actually does have some relevance for Christians today (even given how
I first read about Wynken, Blynken, and Nod by Eugene W. Field, illustrated by Giselle Potter (Schwartz & Wade, 2008), at The Well-Read Child. So when I saw it on the new books shelf in the children’s section of the library, I was very excited to check it out. I’ve read the Eugene Field poem before, but
I remembered reading Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion, illustrated by Margaret Bloy Graham (Harper and Row, 1956), as a kid, so I picked it up again to relive it now, reading it to my son (he’s currently 15 months). Harry the white dog with black spots doesn’t want to take a bath, so he hides his
This month, I found my favorite Dr. Seuss book: My Many Colored Days (Knopf, 1996). My Many Colored Days was published posthumously and was not illustrated by Dr. Seuss (paintings by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher). But probably for that reason, I love the brightly painted pages. The abstract paintings nicely capture animals in various moods and colors,
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