Author: Philip Nel

Philip Nel is Professor of English and Director of Kansas State University’s Program in Children’s Literature. His most recent books are Keywords for Children’s Literature 2nd edition (2021, co-edited with Lissa Paul and Nina Christensen), Was the Cat in the Hat Black?: The Hidden Racism of Children's Literature and the Need for Diverse Books (2017), Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children's Literature (2012), Tales for Little Rebels (2008, co-edited with Julia Mickenberg), The Annotated Cat (2007), and four volumes of Crockett Johnson's comic strip Barnaby (2013, 2014, 2016, 2020, all co-edited with Eric Reynolds).

Powerhouse

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The hectic pace of this time of year (grading finals! grading papers! etc!) always makes me think of the music of Raymond Scott (1908-1994), but especially his “Powerhouse” (1937).  If you’ve ever watched any Warner Bros. cartoons, you’ll recognize this as the machinery-out-of-control theme.  Carl Stalling (1891-1972), who created the scores for those cartoons, made…

Bow-Wow!

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A dog.  A bug.  A walk around the block.  From this simple premise comes one of the great picture contemporary picture books – and, while we’re on the subject, great picture books, period.  With a spare, clean design and plenty of humor, Mark Newgarden and Megan Montague Cash’s Bow-Wow Bugs a Bug (2007) is a pleasure…

Biography of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: News, Thanks, and Apologies

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A Crockett Johnson–Ruth Krauss biography update with good news, thanks, and apologies.  Let’s do the apologies first. Apologies.  It was unprofessional of me to air this disagreement publicly.  It’s one thing to blog about the editing process, and another to air one’s editorial differences in a public forum.  I’ve already apologized to my editor (who…

Biography of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: Update, Featuring First 5 Paragraphs of the Book!

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I haven’t blogged about the biography of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss for a while because I’ve been waiting.  I sent in the latest version of the manuscript back on the first of the year; my editor finally read it in late March, and sent it out to a reader.  I received the reader’s report…

Keywords for Children’s Literature: Meet the Blog!

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To introduce Keywords for Children’s Literature (forthcoming in June), we – Lissa Paul, New York University Press, and myself – are pleased to announce the Keywords for Children’s Literature blog. In our new post over there, you’ll find links to both the Table of Contents and our Introduction.  Lissa and I say a few words about…

They Might Be Geniuses

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They might indeed be geniuses.  What other band has, in the last quarter century, produced such consistently great music?  Music for films, TV, adults, children, and mammals of any description?  I ask you: Who? Commemorating new music by They Might Be Giants (who, dear reader, are this blogger’s favorite band), here are nine TMBG songs…

Cushlamochree! Barnaby on stage!

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69 years ago today, the first daily strip of Crockett Johnson‘s Barnaby ran in the newspaper PM.  One year from today, Fantagraphics will begin reprinting Barnaby in full (co-edited by me and Eric Reynolds) – and the University Press of Mississippi will publish my biography of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss.  In anticipation of both…

What time is it?

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Biegert & Funk’s QlockTwo is a beautifully designed clock.  I’ve an image below, but before reading further you might experience it for yourself (on B&F’s webpage). The clock contains the right number of letters to announce the time in a complete sentence.  Its sans serif typeface is easily legible, telling us that “IT IS TWENTY…

How to Find Good Children’s Books

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I’m thinking, in particular, about how to find the good new ones, from among the many thousands of children’s books that appear each year.  This is a question I’m often asked, but it’s a question of particular interest to my Literature for Children classes right now, since their third paper requires them to find a…