Editor’s Note: Here’s another archival post worth revisiting. Enjoy! I recently spoke with a nice woman who works in publishing. I asked her why publishing has abandoned timelessness in favor of timeliness. I will summarize her answer: Librarians used to drive the market. That explains the success of Robert Lawson, Eleanor Estes, and Richard and […]
Seven Steps To a Better Bedtime Story
There is a calico cat that treads about our backyard like a fancy hobo. He’s scrawny and haughty both. I did this picture after a conversation my wife and I had about him. If you are the parent entrusted with bedtime story duties, perhaps you might conjure up a journey for him and see where […]
Share Aesop ASAP
Stained glass windows do not make us treasure glass as much as they make us treasure light. The glory of stained glass windows, like the glory of creation, consists in showcasing that which shines through it. There are those who spend a great deal of time persuading others that the world around us is opaque […]
Newly Minted Familiarity
Fantasy is a two-edged sword. It can amplify our disenchantment with the world, or refresh our appreciation of it. William Jay Smith does a great job communicating the romance of domesticity and refreshing our appreciation of life in his poem, “The Toaster.” He uses the unfamiliar (dragon) to refresh our wonder at the familiar (toaster). Tolkien […]
Member of the Family
Some months ago, my wife and I were reading Eleanor Estes’ charming book Rufus M. We were amazed at one story where Rufus (the youngest of the Moffats and the title character) found some money frozen in the ice. While the rest of his family were busy trying to manage a frozen pipe under the […]
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