Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children's Literature as an Adult

I learned a lot about some children's authors and it was all told in a humorous fashion - altogether a fun and illuminating read that also made me smile as I recalled reading the authors and texts Handy wrote of. It was a bit of time travel back to my childhood.

Perfect read for children book lovers.

This is a delightful, insightful book! I am simply amazed that anyone thinks this book reads like a PhD thesis. On the contrary, it is stylistically fresh, interesting, and frequently witty. (You don't find much wit in PhD theses.) And the audience is obvious: it's anyone who has made a habit of reading to their children or grandchildren night after night and/or who were childhood readers themselves. I enjoyed this trip down memory lane so much I actually ordered a couple of my remembered favorites so that I could read them again. I should say that I had not read all of the books that come in for analysis, but that did not diminish my interest in what Handy had to say about them! Seems to me you have to be a real sourpuss not to like this book if you are at all familiar with or have an interest in children's literature. And presumably if not, you would not be inclined to consider reading this book in the first place. The book is a real joy. I recommend it without reservation.

Among the happiest memories from my childhood are of my mother and father reading stories to me, followed closely by those from my early schooldays when I realized that I could piece together the letters on a page and make them magically come to life as words. I quickly became a book collector, and I'm proud to say that I still have in my possession most of the books which gave me so much happiness in my early reading days. I revisit those old friends from time to time and still experience joy when I open their pages and reread them. Wild Things by Bruce Handy gave me much of that same joy. As I read Handy's observations on some childhood books I often found myself saying "Yes, that's right!" or sometimes "I don't agree," but, regardless of whether I felt he got something wrong or something right, I enjoyed every page of this book.This is not a comprehensive history of children's literature by any means, but it does cast as far back as the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in places to touch on some early examples of writing aimed at children. These were mostly religious in theme, with heavy emphases on proper behavior and godliness and a preoccupation with death. Starting in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as better nutrition and health care meant fewer child deaths, literature aimed at the young became more focused on the present world. Writers like Alcott, Twain, Barrie, and Baum wrote books that are still widely read today.But Handy's primary focus is on books from the mid to late twentieth century. He and I are approximately the same age, so I really enjoyed and felt a chord of recognition reading his appreciations of the works of Margaret Wise Brown, Dr. Seuss, Maurice Sendak, C.S. Lewis, Beverly Cleary, and many others. I don't always agree with some of his conclusions: as a young boy I thoroughly enjoyed reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books and Little Women and Little Men by Louisa May Alcott because I loved their historical backgrounds and appealing characters, regardless of whether they were predominantly male or female. It was also fun to read about Beverly Cleary's later books on Ramona, since my early reading days coincided more with her Henry Huggins, Ellen Tebbits, Otis Spofford and The Mouse and the Motorcycle series.Handy's book concludes with an Appendix and Bibliography listing the books he covers in Wild Things as well as suggestions for similar reading. If after reading Wild Things you want more information on children's books and their authors some suggestions I can make are Secret Gardens by Humphrey Carpenter, Don't Tell the Grownups by Alison Lurie,, A Sense of Wonder by Katherine Paterson, How the Heather Looks by Joan Bodger, and A Child's Delight by Noel Perrin.

As one who reads a great deal of children's literature, everything from board books to YA novels, reading Bruce Handy's latest book Wild Things was not only an escape into the books of my formative years, it was a thoughtful analysis (complete with footnotes, appendix, and accompanying bibliography at the back of the book) of children's literature as both a genre and process of human development. From the outset this book might seemingly appeal only to teachers and librarians. However, I think parents, caregivers, and educators of young children could benefit from the anecdotes and every day details outlining not only why we read to children, but what a metamorphosis children's literature has had in the past half a century. Admittedly I must forgive Handy on account of his extensive space dedicated to Seuss and his hearty dismissal of Anne of Green Gables, but otherwise this compelling nonfiction begs for future editions of similar substance.