Reading Copy Book Blog

The image on the left is from an 1802 book called Histoire naturelle generale et particulière des Mollusques by Denys Montfort. The image on the right is one I came across today, from 2004, listed as original children’s book art by Tom Leonard, and called Mysterious Giant Squid. The Kraken hasn’t changed much in 202 [...]

Curmudgeonly grump and marvelously imaginative author Maurice Sendak died a week ago today. I came across this again today and thought it was worth a revisit…. Sendak’s classic Where the Wild Things Are, as ready by Christopher Walken*. Makes me laugh every time. “The kid is kind of a jerk. I think that’s the point [...]

There’s a lot of talk of wild things around the office here, today, and talk of curdmudgeons and cantankerousness, love of animals and children. Maurice Sendak, who has passed away at age 83, had a notable effect on books, and people who love books, like us. A famously blunt, outspoken and excitable grump, he always [...]

Very sad news from the book world today, American children’s book author and illustrator Maurice Sendak has died at the age of  83. He is best known for Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963 and a bedtime reading favorite ever since. The BBC reports that the book has sold 19 million copies. The [...]

With their ungainly, hippopotamus-like appearance, the Moomins are unlikely literary heroes but Tove Jansson’s family of trolls have enchanted young readers since 1945. This eclectic set of characters from Moominvalley enjoy fantastical tales of adventure, and Jansson’s work in children’s literature earned her the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1966. Many people don’t know that [...]

An elementary school teacher in British Columbia, Canada has been told that her use of a quote from Dr. Seuss’s Yertle the Turtle was too political for her students, and must be kept out of B.C. classrooms. For those of you outside of B.C. the teachers union is currently in the middle of a lengthy [...]

The art of Garth Williams, illustrator of Charlotte’s Web and much more.

A Salesman’s Sample Case of children’s books from 1901.

The New York Times writes about the 60th anniversary of Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. As the article’s headline says, this novel is indeed some book. So simple, so easy to read, so engaging for anyone reading or listening to someone read aloud. Earlier this year, I was reading Charlotte’s Web to my six-year-old daughter [...]

The lickable wallpaper from Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” has become a reality for some lucky London engineers.