Wild Things
Subtitle: The Joy of Reading Children's Literature as an Adult
By: Bruce Handy
Edition: Large print edition.
Series: Thorndike Press large print popular and narrative nonfiction
Publisher: Thorndike Press, a part of Gale, a Cengage Company
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 491
ISBN-13: 9781432843540
Copyright date: 2017
Subjects: Books and reading; History and criticism; Children's literature
Description: Bruce Handy revisits the classics of every American childhood, from fairy tales to The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and explores the back stories of their creators, using context and biography to understand how some of the most creative authors and illustrators of their times created their often deeply personal masterpieces. Along the way, Handy learns what The Cat in the Hat says about anarchy and absentee parenting, which themes are shared by The Runaway Bunny and Portnoy's Complaint, and why Ramona Quimby is as true an American icon as Tom Sawyer or Jay Gatsby.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 473-487).
Table of contents: title: New eyes, new ears: Margaret Wise Brown and Goodnight Moon; title: Runaways: Family drama in picture books... and well beyond; title: Once upon a time and in and out of weeks: Fairy tales and Maurice Sendak; title: Why a duck? The uses of talking animals from Aesop to Beatrix Potter to Olivia the Pig; title: You have to know how: Dr. Seuss vs. Dick and Jane; title: Kids being kids: Ramona Quimby, American pest; title: God and man in Narnia; title: One nation: Washington's cherry tree, Rosa Park's bus, and Oz; title: Going on seventeen (or not): Little Women, little houses, and Peter Pans; title: The end: Dead pets, dead grandparents, and the glory of everything.