Meeting Maurice Sendak, the provocative author of Where the Wild Things Are, in 1984
The illustrator and creator talks about his passion for Mickey Mouse, atheism and moral outrage
March 2022
The books of my life
Viet Thanh Nguyen: ‘I didn’t notice the racism of Tintin’
The Pulitzer prize-winning novelist on the depiction of Vietnamese people, the fun in Voltaire’s Candide and memorable masturbation scenes
August 2021
Books that made me
Chris Riddell: ‘Maurice Sendak taught us playfulness could be profound’
The author-illustrator on being read Tolkien at school, the perfect picture book and struggling to crack The Da Vinci Code
May 2021
Books blog
Lionel Shriver v Cynthia Ozick: hurrah for the new literary beef
The books world was growing worryingly well-mannered, but Ozick’s response – in verse – to a bad review by Shriver has revived the fine art of feuding
July 2019
Best of 2019
Story time: the five children’s books every adult should read
Tao of Glass review – golden odyssey through Philip Glass's music
August 2018
A touch of the macabre in children’s books is nothing to be scared of
Eleanor Margolis
Introducing kids to life’s more unsettling aspects is in fact a good idea, says New Statesman columnist Eleanor Margolis
July 2017
Lost Maurice Sendak picture book to be published next year
Presto and Zesto in Limboland is a homage to the Where the Wild Things Are author’s friendship with his collaborator Arthur Yorinks
October 2016
Washington nurseries warned off scary stories for children
State guidelines say books for infants that ‘show frightening images are not considered to be appropriate’ – raising cultural censorship fears
July 2016
The Violet Hour: Great Writers at the End by Katie Roiphe review – how to cope with death
This study of Susan Sontag, Sigmund Freud, John Updike, and how they coped with the mystery of extinction, is also a memoir about brushes with mortality
May 2016
Children's books
Eric Carle: children can identify with the helpless, small, insignificant caterpillar
Children's books
Top 10 children’s and YA books that adults can learn from
April 2016
Book of the day
The Violet Hour: Great Writers at the End by Katie Roiphe – review
This study of six great authors and their approach to death teems with detail but somehow misses the mark
March 2016
Children's books
10 wild facts about Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are
‘I want to stare death in the eye’… how Christopher Hitchens, Susan Sontag, John Updike and other great writers confronted their mortality
January 2016
Children's books
The greatest inspirational quotes from children's books
Hidden beneath the bright covers of children’s books are philosophical quotes from which we can all learn. Take a look at some of our favourites, from Winnie the Pooh to Where the Wild Things Are
February 2015
Children's books
Steven Butler's top 10 menaces
Booksamillion
Which is the first book you remember reading?
November 2014
History's unsung sidekicks – in pictures
A new illustrated book champions the friends, relatives and muses who helped change history, writes Corinne Jones
October 2014
Children's books
Top 10 imaginary friends in fiction
All characters in fiction are imaginary friends to some extent, but here AF Harrold chooses his favourite imaginary friends as book and play characters in their own right!
