The New York Review of Books

Master of the Downbeat

June 9, 2011

Pulse by Julian Barnes

Comedy in Bloom

March 25, 2010

The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine

Widcraft

January 15, 2009

The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike

Do Schools Have to Be Boring?

December 18, 2008

The Message of the Schoolroom

December 4, 2008

School by Catherine Burke and Ian Grosvenor

Small Wonder: The Little Red Schoolhouse in History and Memory by Jonathan Zimmerman

Teaching Boys and Girls Separately an article by Elizabeth Weil

Please Release the Chinese Writers in Prison!

July 17, 2008

The Girl in the Tower

May 1, 2008

Petrosinella: A Neapolitan Rapunzel retold and illustrated by Diane Stanley

Golden: A Retelling of “Rapunzel” by Cameron Dokey

Letters from Rapunzel by Sara Lewis Holmes

Rapunzel by Barbara Rogasky, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman

Zel by Donna Jo Napoli

The Tower Room by Adèle Geras

Sugar Cane: A Caribbean Rapunzel by Patricia Storace, illustrated by Raúl Colón

Rapunzel: A Groovy Fairy Tale by Lynn Roberts, illustrated by David Roberts

Barbie as Rapunzel by Merry North

Pottery

September 27, 2007

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix a film directed by David Yates, based on the book by J.K. Rowling

When Is a Building Beautiful?

March 15, 2007

The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton

The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton

The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton

How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton

The Romantic Movement: Sex, Shopping and the Novel by Alain de Botton

Household Gods: The British and Their Possessions by Deborah Cohen

The Lamp in the Mausoleum

December 21, 2006

The View from Castle Rock: Stories by Alice Munro

Carried Away: A Selection of Stories by Alice Munro, with an introduction by Margaret Atwood

Alice Munro: Writing Her Lives: A Biography by Robert Thacker

Lives of Mothers and Daughters: Growing Up with Alice Munro by Sheila Munro

Barbara Epstein (1928–2006)

August 10, 2006

The Passion of C.S. Lewis

February 9, 2006

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe a film directed by Andrew Adamson

The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis by Alan Jacobs

Revisiting Narnia: Fantasy, Myth and Religionin C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles edited by Shanna Caughey

Liberated Girls

November 3, 2005

Little Women, Little Men, Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott

The Royal Family

December 16, 2004

The Story of Babar by Jean de Brunhoff

The Travels of Babar by Jean de Brunhoff

Babar the King by Jean de Brunhoff

Babar and Zephir by Jean de Brunhoff

Babar’s Picnic by Laurent de Brunhoff

Babar’s Visit to Bird Island by Laurent de Brunhoff

Babar Comes to America by Laurent de Brunhoff

Babar Loses His Crown by Laurent de Brunhoff

Babar Visits Another Planet by Laurent de Brunhoff

Babar and the Wully-Wully by Laurent de Brunhoff

Babar’s Mystery by Laurent de Brunhoff

Babar and the Ghost by Laurent de Brunhoff

Babar’s Little Girl Makes a Friend by Laurent de Brunhoff

Babar’s Battle by Laurent de Brunhoff

The Rescue of Babar by Laurent de Brunhoff

Babar’s Museum of Art by Laurent de Brunhoff

Bonhomme by Laurent de Brunhoff

Animal Land: The Creatures of Children’s Fiction by Margaret Blount

The Empire’s Old Clothes: What the Lone Ranger, Babar, and Other Innocent Heroes Do to Our Minds by Ariel Dorfman

The Art of Babar by Nicholas Fox Weber

Jean and Laurent de Brunhoff: The Legacy of Babar by Ann Meinzen Hildebrand

Should We Burn Babar? Essays on Children’s Literature and the Power of Stories by Herbert Kohl

‘The Good Bad Boy’

August 12, 2004

The Good Bad Boy

June 24, 2004

God’s Houses Part II

July 17, 2003

Cistercian Europe: Architecture of Contemplation by Terryl N. Kinder

America’s Religious Architecture: Sacred Places for Every Community by Marilyn J. Chiat

Houses of God: Region, Religion, and Architecture in the United States by Peter W. Williams

Architecture for the Gods by Michael J. Crosbie

Sacred Architecture by Caroline Humphrey and Piers Vitebsky

Re-Pitching the Tent: Reordering the Church Building for Worship and Mission by Richard Giles

Building from Belief: Advance, Retreat, and Compromise in the Remaking of Catholic Church Architecture by Michael E. DeSanctis

Ugly as Sin: Why They Changed Our Churches from Sacred Places to Meeting Spaces—and How We Can Change Them Back Again by Michael S. Rose

When Church Became Theatre: The Transformation of Evangelical Architecture and Worship in Nineteenth-Century America by Jeanne Halgren Kilde

The New Religious Image of Urban America: The Shopping Mall as Ceremonial Center by Ira G. Zepp Jr

Statement for Peace

February 13, 2003

The Underduckling

August 9, 2001

Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller Jackie Wullschlager

The Oddness of Oz

December 21, 2000

‘Lovely Ballerina’

June 29, 2000

On Edward Gorey (1925–2000)

May 25, 2000

Not for Muggles

December 16, 1999

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Bothered and Bewildered

October 23, 1997

Witches and Neighbors: The Social and Cultural Context of European Witchcraft by Robin Briggs

The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century Representations by Diane Purkiss

Opening the Box of Delights

December 21, 1995

A Book of Discoveries by John Masefield

Martin Hyde: The Duke’s Messenger by John Masefield

Jim Davis by John Masefield

The Midnight Folk by John Masefield, illustrated by Quentin Blake

The Box of Delights: When the Wolves Were Running by John Masefield, illustrated by Quentin Blake

On James Merrill (1926–1995)

March 23, 1995

She Had It All

March 2, 1995

Little Women A film directed by Gillian Armstrong

Little Women, or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy Holt, Knopf, Little, Brown, Macmillan, Oxford University Press, Penguin, Puffin, Random House, Scholastic, Simon and, Schuster, and Viking Penguin by Louisa May Alcott

Little Women by Laurie Lawlor, based on the screenplay by Robin Swicord, from the novel by Lousia May Alcott

Leaving the Door Ajar

April 7, 1994

Imagination of the Heart: The Life of Walter de la Mare by Theresa Whistler

Cootie Power

December 16, 1993

The People in the Playground by Iona Opie

Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School by Barrie Thorne

Undiscovered Country

December 17, 1992

Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson, translated by Elizabeth Portch

Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson, translated by Elizabeth Portch

Moominsummer Madness by Tove Jansson, translated by Thomas Warburton

Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson, translated by Thomas Warburton

A Fine Romance

April 25, 1991

The Cabinet of Dr. Seuss

December 20, 1990

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street

Horton Hatches the Egg

McElligot’s Pool

Bartholomew and the Oobleck

Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose

Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories

If I Ran the Zoo

Horton Hears a Who

On Beyond Zebra!

If I Ran the Circus

The Cat in the Hat

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today!

The Lorax

The Butter Battle Book

You’re Only Old Once!

Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

A Dictionary for Deconstructors

November 23, 1989

The Frog Prince

November 24, 1988

The Woman Who Rode Away

May 12, 1988

Trust Me: Short Stories by John Updike

S. by John Updike

Underground Artist

February 18, 1988

True Confessions

June 11, 1987

How I Grew by Mary McCarthy

Bad Housekeeping

December 19, 1985

The Good Terrorist by Doris Lessing

The Diaries of Jane Somers: The Diary of a Good Neighbour & If the Old Could… by Doris Lessing

Life’s Greatest Hits

October 24, 1985

The Singing Game by Iona Opie, by Peter Opie

Riding the Wave of the Future

October 25, 1984

The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit

The Last of the Dragons by E. Nesbit

The Railway Children by E. Nesbit

The Story of the Amulet by E. Nesbit

Five Children and It by E. Nesbit

The Phoenix and the Carpet by E. Nesbit

The Ratushinskaya Case

June 30, 1983

Skin Deep

June 2, 1983

American Beauty by Lois W. Banner

Skin to Skin: Eroticism in Dress by Prudence Glynn

The World of the Pied Piper

March 18, 1982

Kate Greenaway: A Biography by Rodney Engen

Sex and Fashion

October 22, 1981

Boycott Taba

October 11, 1979

Braking for Elves

March 8, 1979

The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves, and Other Little People by Thomas Keightley

A Field Guide to the Little People by Nancy Arrowsmith, by George Moore

Gnomes by Wil Huygen, with illustrations by Rien Poortvliet

Faeries described and illustrated by Brian Froud, by Alan Lee, edited and designed by David Larkin

The Fairies in Tradition and Literature by Katharine Briggs

The Vanishing People: Fairy Lore and Legends by Katharine Briggs

An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies and Other Supernatural Creatures by Katharine Briggs

Fairy Tales and After: From Snow White to E.B. White by Roger Sale

From Rags to Rags

December 7, 1978

The Woman’s Dress for Success Book by John T. Molloy

Seeing Through Clothes by Anne Hollander

In Fashion: Dress in the Twentieth Century by Prudence Glynn, illustrated by Madeleine Ginsburg

Mirror, Mirror: A Social History of Fashion by Michael Batterberry, by Ariane Batterberry

Avedon: Photographs 1947-1977 with an essay by Harold Brodkey

Release Ngugi

June 15, 1978

To the Sideshow

March 23, 1978

Animals and Men: Their Relationship as Reflected in Western Art from Prehistory to the Present Day by Kenneth Clark

Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self by Leslie Fiedler

A Fiedler Reader by Leslie Fiedler

The Round Table in Ruins

November 24, 1977

The Book of Merlyn: The Unpublished Conclusion to “The Once and Future King” by T.H. White, prologue by Sylvia Townsend Warner, illustrations by Trevor Stubley

The Dress Code

November 25, 1976

On Human Finery by Quentin Bell

Dress and Society, 1560-1970 by Geoffrey Squire

Hollywood Costume—Glamour! Glitter! Romance! by Dale McConathy, with Diana Vreeland

A Tail of Terror

December 11, 1975

The Power of Smokey

June 12, 1975

Shardik by Richard Adams

Happy Endings

November 28, 1974

Waiting for the Party: The Life of Frances Hodgson Burnett by Ann Thwaite

The Fate of the Munchkins

April 18, 1974

The Annotated Wizard of Oz: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, illustrated by W.W. Denslow, with an introduction, notes, and bibliography by Michael Patrick Hearn

Wise-Women

June 14, 1973

The Summer Before the Dark by Doris Lessing

The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch

Good Children’s Books!

December 14, 1972

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl, illustrated by Joseph Schindelman

The Tenth Life of Osiris Oaks by Wally Cox, by Everett Greenbaum, illustrated by F.A. Fitzgerald

The Little Broomstick by Mary Stewart, illustrated by Shirley Hughes

A Castle of Bone by Penelope Farmer

The House of Wings by Betsy Byars, illustrated by Daniel Schwartz

No Way of Telling by Emma Smith

Goldengrove by Jill Paton Walsh

Friday and Robinson by Michel Tournier, illustrated by David Stone Martin

Once Upon a Time, the Fairy Tale World of Arthur Rackham edited by Margery Darrell

The Light Princess by George MacDonald, illustrated by Maurice Sendak

The Golden Key by George MacDonald, illustrated by Maurice Sendak

Witches and Fairies: Fitzgerald to Updike

December 2, 1971

Fairy Tale Liberation

December 17, 1970

Intellect and Non-Violence

December 15, 1966

Consumers’ Report

December 9, 1965

Early Powell

June 1, 1963

What’s Become of Waring? by Anthony Powell