Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book
RSSDaryl Grabarek, Curriculum Connections -- School Library Journal, 10/06/2009
Place a book in a child’s hands and you never know what will happen. In Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children’s Book (Roaring Brook, 2009), Anita Silvey gathers the reminiscences of adults about the works that influenced them as children and the lessons that still resonate. Writers (Anna Quindlen, Sherman Alexie, Bobbie Ann Mason, Azar Nafisi, Angela Johnson, David McCullough); inventors and scientists (Steve Wozniak, Andrew Weaver); politicians and activists (Donna E. Shalala, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.); artists (Wendell Minor, Pete Seeger); and the media (Lesley Stahl, Scott Simon) are represented in stories that offer glimpses into their lives then and now.
Ann Tyler remarks on her memories as a 4-year-old being read Virginia Lee Burton’s The Little House. Burton’s son, Aris Demetrios, recalls looking over his mother’s shoulder as she worked on the illustrations for Choo Choo. A few authors, titles, and series (Beatrix Potter, Huckleberry Finn, “Tom Swift”) are fondly remembered by several contributors, while many others—Beverly Cleary, Robert McCloskey, Harriet the Spy, Flat Stanley, Henry Huggins, Horton, and King Arthur—also make appearances. For each tribute, Silvey provides insightful commentary about the author and illustrator and the book’s history, and includes an excerpt and an illustration or two.
Many of these life-changing books were gifts, some were discovered by the child, and take heart, teachers, a few were assigned (see Dave Eggers). Share this book with the young adults in your life. They’ll enjoy it as well.
