Volume 56, Number 12 · July 16, 2009
Manhood for Amateurs: The Wilderness of Childhood
By Michael Chabon
When I was growing up, our house backed onto woods, a thin two-acre remnant of a once-mighty wilderness. This was in a Maryland city where the enlightened planners had provided a number of such lingering swaths of green. They were […]
Clever for Kids (& Teens)
Essay by Michael Chabon in the NYRB
Nothing but Ghosts by Beth Kephart
Following the death of her mother, 16-year-old Katie D’Amore is spending the summer tending to the grounds at the home of the famously reclusive Miss Martine. It’s the kind of work Katie’s mother would have appreciated—the quiet pursuit of beauty—and the physical labor is a welcome diversion. She joins a cast of devoted caretakers, working […]
From Paper Cuts, the NYTBR’s Book Blog:
Remembering Eden Ross Lipson
By Julie Just
Andrea Mohin/The New York Times Eden Ross Lipson in 1993.
Eden Ross Lipson, who died yesterday at 66 from pancreatic cancer, was a person of superhuman energies. An editor at the Book Review for 31 years, she was most visible for the last 21 of […]
Puzzlehead
From PW Children’s Bookshelf:
James Yang. Atheneum, $15.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4169-0936-1
Taking the idea of “fitting in” literally, Puzzlehead and his friends Mo, Bob, Sue and Stevie use their heads—literally—to figure out how to play. (The whole gang, with oversize heads in unusual geometric shapes, seems to exist in only two dimensions, like paper cutouts.) “Come spin […]
Back in Print Soon: Escape to Witch Mountain
From PW:
The fact that Disney’s recent blockbuster hit Race to Witch Mountain, starring Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock) as a taxi driver who winds up helping two aliens-disguised-as-teenagers find their space ship, has literary roots may have been lost on a few fans. The reason is that the film’s source material, a backlist science fiction title […]