Bruce Handy: Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult

Abstract

If you have decided to read this review, hopefully, you are familiar enough with children’s books that you will recognize my attempt at a parody of the first few words of Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown; and the cover I describe is a nod to another great children’s author and illustrator, Maurice Sendak, writer of the incomparable Where the Wild Things Are. Tributes to both of these writers and many others abound in Bruce Handy’s insightful new book, Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult. Wild Things is a delightful book that allows grown-ups to indulge themselves with a visit to the cherished books of their childhood, or in some cases, reminisce about favorites they have read to their own children.