Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book

Book 27 of my 2019 Reading Challenge

read from March 3 - 11

Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book

by Anita Silvey

Summary (via the book jacket)

published 2009

Here in one captivating and inspiring volume more than 100 leaders from the arts, sciences, politics, business, and other fields recall a children's book they loved, and its impact on their lives. Insightful, funny, inspiring, and unexpected, the contributions illuminate the lives of a fascinating range of people and introduce readers to a selection of the best books for young readers.  Each is accompanied by an excerpt and illustrations from the selected book and an informative background essay by distinguished children's book authority Anita Silvey.

My Opinion

4 stars

I found this book as I was searching the library's catalog for a similar title and this popped up on the page and peaked my curiosity.  This book is made for readers because it's page after page of people's excitement for reading.  The format was 110 people wrote a few paragraphs about a children's book they loved and what it meant to them, there would be a little backstory about the book and/or author, and there would be an excerpt from the book itself.

My book would be "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin.  It was the first book I read that had a "plot twist"; the person behind the game was someone that had disappeared and appeared to be a victim earlier in the book, immediately dismissing them as a suspect in my mind.  Learning that authors could be tricky and not follow a straight path like Easy or younger Juvenile Fiction books tend to do completely changed my approach to reading and developed my love for mysteries and picking up clues.

Fun Fact: "Where the Wild Things Are" started off as "Where the Wild Horses Are" but Maurice Sendak couldn't draw horses so he kept the story and changed the characters to things he could draw.

It's not a 'binge read' sort of book or the stories will start to run together but it was an enjoyable way to end the night a few pages at a time over the course of a week. 

A Few Quotes from the Book

"The act of reading to a child is the most important contribution to the future of our society that adults can make." ~ Anita Silvey

"Some books you never forget. Some characters become your friends for life." ~ Judy Blume

"Children should be encouraged to read anything and everything because you never know what they will get out of a book." ~ Lucy Mangan