When it comes to allegories, people have Opinions. Some readers find them unbearably cheesy, which is, I guess, understandable: few things grate on the nerves like a story that’s too handholdy—the kind that tells us what we’re supposed to think about every element of the story. And allegories can certainly come across as handholdy. There’s […]

Reading picture books as an adult is fun for lots of reasons, but one reason I’ve found is that I appreciate the different styles of illustration much more than I did as a younger reader. These days I’m especially finding myself drawn to paper collage illustrations, and one artist who always catches my eye is […]

For millennia the written word has held special significance among those whose faith is centered on scripture. Some ancient Jewish and Islamic traditions imposed safeguards to prevent the desecration of any piece of writing—sacred or secular—that might bear God’s name. Christian history is marked by missionaries and others who made literacy and education a priority, […]

When I cozied into a chair and propped a cup of tea onto my knee to read Isabel Chenot’s West of Moonlight, East of Dawn, I already knew the story would stir me to wonder and sorrow. I’ve relished sharing multiple renditions of the old folktale with my kids, from “East of the Sun, West […]