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Wild Things! Acts Of Mischief In Children's Literature (2014)

by Betsy Bird(Favorite Author)

4.12 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0763651508 (ISBN13: 9780763651503)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Candlewick Press

review 1: A delightful romp through the world behind the scenes of children's literature and publishing. I enjoyed every second of it, and now have some delightful trivia tidbits to share with others. Each chapter is themed, but overall, the book is very much whatever the caught the authors' fancy. This lack of book thesis did not damage my enjoyment of it, but it is of note, and may bother other readers.
review 2: If you are at all into children's books, this behind-the-scenes tell-all is sort of like reading a supermarket tabloid about the stars: lots of juicy gossip. Still, some serious issues are addressed (and truthfully, those chapters are not nearly as much fun). The three authors blog about children's books and are apparently friends (although one of the autho... morers has passed away and the book is dedicated to him). This book was just a real lark of a read. I kind of skimmed the preachy bits---I have probably read some of that stuff before---to go straight to the more inconsequential, but more entertaining bits. For example, it was fun to read about how Jon Scieszka was inspired by MAD Magazine. (My brother loved that magazine when we were kids. He was aghast that my mother threw out his collection when he was away at college.) You'll get the real story behind how the Madeleine books came about. You will read about how P.L. Travers changed some chapters in her books to erase some racism, but how she wasn't maybe entirely successful. I learned how the steam shovel came to achieve its final job in "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel". I could go on, but you get the picture. My advice: if you love children's books, read it. less

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