Tag Archives: children's classics

Curious George’s Escape from Hitler

By Robin Bates | Published: June 9, 2019

Monday A recent New Yorker article about “Curious George” forces us to rethink the beloved children’s classic. While at first glance, Rivka Galchen points out, it uncomfortably echoes the Middle Passage, it actually grew out of a different atrocity. Authors Hans and Margret Rey were Jews fleeing the Germans as they invaded France. The Reys […]

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Sonia Sotomayor and Nancy Drew

By Robin Bates | Published: June 8, 2009

This week, with Sonia Sotomayor still in the news (although the firestorm that greeted her nomination has gone into temporary remission), I thought I’d devote my posts to supreme court justices and literature. This was inspired in part by an excellent New York Times article over the weekend on Sotomayor and Clarence Thomas (in which […]

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Sendak and Dr. Seuss to the Rescue

By Robin Bates | Published: June 5, 2009

In my last entry I mentioned the key role that books can play in the lives of children. I’d like to follow that up here, officially adding the category of “children’s classics” to the “great literature” to which this website is devoted.There is artistry to many of the children’s stories that we remember fondly. When […]

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