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The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick is one book of many recent ones that moves beyond the traditional relationship between text and images.
Olivia is a story about an energetic piglet with an amazing sense of imagination. In this story we are introduced to Olivia a piglet who wears her mother out! Readers can’t help but live vicariously through this unforgettable porcine heroine.
The gap between animals and humans in Beatrix Potter’s books is so uniquely narrow that the reader scarcely notices the transition between the two.
In my humble opinion, San Francisco is the best city in the world, so a book about my beloved city is always close to my heart. Maybelle the Cable Car is a classic story about a cable car that is about to be taken out of service and how the voice of the people can be heard in the true spirit of democracy.
For more than 12 years, Mary Blair dominated The Walt Disney Co. design. Her art has represented joyful creativity and communicated pure pleasure.
Pippi Longstocking, by Astrid Lindgren, was published in 1950, in Sweden, to great popularity and to the horror of the Swedish educational establishment. The educationalists felt the book was a set of instructions for disobedience and social anarchy. They considered the book dangerous and warned parents to keep their children away from it. Swedish children instead read it in droves. Soon after it was translated and published throughout the western world, and children from countries far away from Sweden were playing in their imaginations in the Villa Villakulla, missing school, and blissfully doing whatever they wanted in a world free of adults. Almost 60 years later, Pippi Longstocking still doesn’t sit well with many adult readers. The book is chaotic and if you believe one of the main responsibilities of adults is to train children to become good, socialized children, Pippi Longstocking is going to make you feel uncomfortable.
Cinderella’s story has been told over and over, but never has it been touched by the kind of magic found in this book. Mary Blair painted the original pictures for Walt Disney’s incomparable animated film, and here her elegant art is gathered together as a picture book for the first time.
I’ve always been impressed by the natural transition that exists between the primary and secondary worlds in children’s literature. For example, something as trivial as a wardrobe, a tunnel, or in the case of Coraline, a hidden door literally leading to another world – a simple yet extraordinary transition from one’s familiar primary world to an unknown secondary world.
![There is no doubt that The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis is a true classic. Although there amy be other fantasy stories that may rank higher than The Chronicles of Narnia series, I think that the series is very important. Along with J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia established a concrete pattern for modern fantasy. Even though most fantasists to date have reacted against this very pattern by subverting it, or expanding it, few have done anything that is fully “independent” of this pattern.
Of all the books in the series, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe seems to be the one that is most analyzed because it is multi-dimensional on so many levels, thus encouraging more than enough material for lengthy discussions. For example, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is such a discussion piece because: 1.) it blends various mythic, folk, literary traditions and personages to create a new tale, 2.) it has a way of representing numinous, mystical scenes, encounters, culminating with Aslan’s sacrifice and resurrection [according to some critics no other author to date equals Lewis in this respect], 3.) it has rich, convincing symbolism [rather than allegory] and deep concern with ethics and morality underlying the story-psychologically, 4.) it makes fantasy believable with a different time flow in different realities, the subjectivity of our experiences, and especially in the final return of the children to our reality - a reality which they had already forgotten.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/03UyiCdJ2mzcpeo1NgjWBLuxo1_500.jpg)
There is no doubt that The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis is a true classic. Although there amy be other fantasy stories that may rank higher than The Chronicles of Narnia series, I think that the series is very important. Along with J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia established a concrete pattern for modern fantasy. Even though most fantasists to date have reacted against this very pattern by subverting it, or expanding it, few have done anything that is fully “independent” of this pattern.
Of all the books in the series, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe seems to be the one that is most analyzed because it is multi-dimensional on so many levels, thus encouraging more than enough material for lengthy discussions. For example, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is such a discussion piece because: 1.) it blends various mythic, folk, literary traditions and personages to create a new tale, 2.) it has a way of representing numinous, mystical scenes, encounters, culminating with Aslan’s sacrifice and resurrection [according to some critics no other author to date equals Lewis in this respect], 3.) it has rich, convincing symbolism [rather than allegory] and deep concern with ethics and morality underlying the story-psychologically, 4.) it makes fantasy believable with a different time flow in different realities, the subjectivity of our experiences, and especially in the final return of the children to our reality - a reality which they had already forgotten.
