Subscribe
Magic in verse, prose and pictures to enchant readers of any age.
Since the publication of her uniquely touching novel Because of Winn Dixie in 2000, Kate DiCamillo has established herself as one of the most exciting voices not only in novels for young readers, but in fiction for any age. Winn Dixie won a Newbery Honors Award; in 2004, her story of a gallant mouse's adventures, The Tale of Despereaux, took the Newbery Medal. In her most recent book, The Magician's Elephant, DiCamillo continues to demonstrate that, whether exploring realms the fantastic or introducing a character drawn from a more familiar reality, her imagination and empathy for her characters cast an unbreakable spell. Here, she shares three books she loves.
Compiled by Garrison Keillor
"I love this anthology. I've read it dozens of times; and each time the poems seem newer, more vital. My only criticism is that there is not a pocket-sized edition, so that I can carry it with me everywhere I go."
By Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Tiina Nunnally
"Andersen's stories are timeless, ageless, astonishing, despairing, profound and funny."
By Sara Varon
"This (almost entirely wordless) graphic novel (about a dog who mail-orders a robot companion) defies description. Suffice it to say that it is a story of friendship and betrayal and forgiveness and that it will break you heart. In a good way."
Email
Print
Share
"The moral and philosophical questions that Henry wrote up as fiction and William as science," Jean Strouse writes of her subject's more famous brothers, "Alice simply lived." It took a biographer of sensitivity and brilliance to give that "simply" the profundity it deserves, and the resulting book, now reissued in the peerless NYRB Classics series, is one of the richest life stories you'll ever read.
The world of Jane Austen's fiction has long been an imaginative playground for writers and readers of a certain stripe. Shannon Hale's Austenland wittily took the next step, setting comic romance in a faux-Pemberly resort for the Darcy-smitten. Her latest returns for more Regency fun, but with a twist: does murder stalk Pembrook Park?
Childlike retreat? Arts and crafts challenge? Frugal and eco-friendly living option? The notion of the "tiny house" has the surprising potential to fire the imagination. In this exuberant volume of sketches, plans, and commentary, the artist Derek Diedricksen shares his infectious enthusiasm for the idea of the micro-mansion.
Please sign in to add a comment on this article.