Ten years ago the fabled children’s author Dr. Seuss, on his death bed, said, “We can do better than this.” As we launch into 2011, let this be our challenge. And may we do so with Dr. Seuss’s special mixture of comedy and earnestness, which is captured in this poem by my father. If you […]
Illustration from Where the Wild Things Are I see that Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are (1963) has been turned into a film, which has led Slate columnist Jack Shafer to revisit a controversy about the book. Apparently Sendak still can’t let go of a critique by psychologist Bruno Bettelheim. I was surprised to learn […]
Last week I gave a list of my favorite children’s books when I was young. My father, who is a poet along with being a French professor, read us poetry as well as fiction (each night, one story or chapter and one poem for each of my three brothers and me), so I thought I’d […]
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 […]
I can’t recommend enough the value of writing your reading history. It will reveal to you sides of yourself you didn’t know you had.
