Boys And Girls Forever: Reflections on Children's Classics

by Alison Lurie (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2003

  $3.35

  It often seems that the most gifted authors of books for children are not like other writers: instead, in some essential way, they are children themselves. E. Nesbit devoted weeks to building a toy town out of kitchenware. James Barrie spent his holidays playing pirates and Indians with the four Davies boys. Laurent deBrunhoff, who continued his father's Babar series, is still climbing trees at the age of 70. Beatrix Potter preferred the company of animals and pets to that of eligible young dancing partners at balls. In these fascinating studies, Alison Lurie's subjects range from what fairy tales teach us, to children's games and poetry by and for children, from book illustrators to enchanted forests and secret gardens in children's literature.

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $3.35

  Are some of the world's most talented writers of children's books essentially children themselves? In this engaging series of essays, Pulitzer prize-winning author Alison Lurie considers this theory, exploring children's classics from many eras and relating them to the authors who wrote them, including Louisa May Alcott, creator of Little Women, Dr. Seuss and J. K. Rowling. In analysing these and many other authors, Alison Lurie shows how these gifted writers have used children's literature to transfigure sorrow, nostalgia and the struggles of their own experience.