His last book reveals under-acknowledged features of his work.
November 07, 2012
The Age of Adolescence
As one reads Jepp, Who Defied the Stars, present and past entangle just as childhood and adulthood spar.
August 15, 2012
Learning to Matter
Betsy Rosenthal's delightful book tells the story of her mother, Edith, who is “number four” in a family of twelve children.
Like many other enduring contributors to children’s literature (Hans Christian Andersen, Lewis Carroll, Beatrix Potter, James M. Barrie, and Margaret Wise Brown), Maurice Sendak was childless.
April 04, 2012
For Midnight's Children
There is the countervailing widespread public opinion in India that children’s books should be utilitarian, printed in functional English, and crammed
November 17, 2011
Gingrich 0, Obama 0
When children’s books evade uncomfortable truths and whitewash the history of what is real, they betray their audience. In addition to manipulating ch
September 21, 2011
Pedagogy in Purgatory
By now, hundreds of children’s books about the Holocaust have been published—fiction and non-fiction, as well as hybrids of varying quality: books abo
May 25, 2011
Yellow Brick Philosophy
Notwithstanding the whirlwind of adaptations, adulterations, dramatizations, spin-offs, ad-ons, pop-ups, memorabilia, and kitsch that have spiraled th
April 13, 2011
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
In a mere hundred pages, Simon Winchester’s new book encapsulates reams of research and commentary in the overcrowded field of Charles Lutwidge Dodgso
December 29, 2010
Life Lessons
Two recently published picture books, remarkable examples of biography for children, eschew romanticization of their subjects and the perpetuation of
