The Essential Guide to Children's Books and Their Creators

. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), $28 (560pp) ISBN 978-0-618-19083-6

Aficionados of children's literature get an education with The Essential Guide to Children's Books and Their Creators, ed. by Anita Silvey, an updated version of her Children's Books and Their Creators (1995). With an encyclopedic approach, the volume contains 475 alphabetically ordered entries-375 from the previous edition and 100 new essays-covering authors, illustrators, genres, publishing trends and more. Writers and artists sound off in entries marked ""Voices of the Creators""; incidental illustrations appear throughout.

Featured Fiction Reviews

Robert Seethaler

The beautiful latest from Seethaler (A Whole Life) revolves around the diverse patrons of a Viennese café. In summer 1966, war orphan Robert Simon, now 31 and tired of manual Continue reading »

Roisín O'Donnell

Irish writer O’Donnell debuts with a wrenching and scrupulously realistic narrative of a Dublin-based mother who, after years of emotional and sexual abuse, decides to leave her Continue reading »

Dino Buzzati

These captivating stories selected by Venuti and written over a 50-year-period by Buzzati (1906–1972) exhibit the author’s interest in fantasy, futility, and fate. In “Seven Continue reading »

Maggie Su

In Su’s marvelous debut, a Taiwanese American woman sculpts a seemingly perfect partner out of a sentient blob. Two years after failing out of college, Vi works as a hotel Continue reading »