Sometimes, a new course draws on my expertise. Â Other times, a new course is a chance for me to develop that expertise. Â This class — “Censoring Children’s Literature” — is definitely the latter. Â I have an interest in the subject, and I’ve tried to structure the syllabus around major issues concerning the regulation of what…
Random House’s newly updated Seussville website – featuring my biography and timeline – recently went live. This is the first time I’ve written a piece for a corporation, but Dr. Seuss did it all the time. Though he published his first children’s book in 1937, he made his living through advertising … until the bestselling The…
With the fall term imminent (starts Monday), I’m posting a link to the latest iteration of my English 545: Literature for Adolescents. My goal is always “diversity” in many senses of that word.  We read books by writers of different backgrounds (African-American, Iranian, Chinese-American, Latino, Caucasian), genders, sexualities, classes — which are probably the categories most…
Comedy is hard. Lane Smith makes it look easy. I’m not going to reveal the punch line to his latest, It’s a Book, because I don’t have to: There are plenty of amusing moments along the way. When the jackass asks, “Where’s your mouse?” Smith provides a wordless page in which a mouse emerges from…
Dr. Seuss‘s Green Eggs and Ham is one of the reasons I do this blog, write books, and am an English professor.  Nearly forty years ago, Green Eggs and Ham — which turns 50 this month — taught me to read.  It also taught me that reading is fun, helping to make me a life-long reader. The…
Just back from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, which (as you may have read by now) is a fantastic adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s siÂx-volume series of graphic novels. This is why. Director Edgar Wright understands what O’Malley is trying to do. As in the books, the film treats narrative as a playful, allusive, genre-bending…
Graduate schools don’t teach you how to get your book published. This blog post does.
A 1943 letter from Crockett Johnson. Asked about himself, he dodges the question.
Would you like to stop abusing PowerPoint? Good. This blog post can help.
Is it just me, or does “This is the lady who knows what children think — BEFORE THEY DO” sound like the tag line for a horror movie? Â You will be relieved to know that Ruth Krauss could not read children’s minds. But she was an excellent and sympathetic listener. In her earliest work, she…
