WORLDS OF WONDER

Wild things tamed.

Children’s literature has been around for as long as there have been children. Myths and memories filled nursery and classroom. Adventure and fantasy tantalized young minds. For English-language readers, the “golden age” of children’s literature remains the period from the early 19th through the mid-20th century: from fairy tales to Lewis Carroll, Kenneth Grahame, Frances Hodgson Burnett, A.A. Milne, and C.S. Lewis. More modern writers take their inspiration from the past, and many works of children’s literature today hark back to an imagined Dickensian past (Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket) or a premodern landscape (Diana Wynne Jones, Philip Pullman). This guide to children’s classics, together with a selection of recent writers, has enough in it to fill a canon for a classroom and a bookshelf near a child’s bed. After a brief introduction, each section offers capsule author biographies, rich illustrations, and deeply felt appreciations for the magic of storytelling. New to many young readers (and their parents and teachers) will be writers such as Shaun Tan, Juan Villoro, Sachiko Kashiwaba, and R.J. Palacio. The globalism of the selection may seem, to skeptics, diverse and inclusive for its own sake. Familiar names are also here, even those whose reputations have suffered in recent years (J.K. Rowling, Roald Dahl). There’s little room for darkness (the biographical sketch of Dahl does some major whitewashing—“a wonderfully entertaining writer”; “a devoted father”). The great joy of this book is the assembly of illustrations, drawn from original publications and historical texts. Rich with color, typeset with clarity, and organized for the discerning eye, this collection is a marvel of material bookmaking: all the more valuable in an age of evanescent screenshots.

A celebratory anthology of children’s literature, from classics to innovators.