Children’s books

Lev Grossman Talks the Joy of Writing for Children in His Newest Novel, The Silver Arrow

If you’ve come to Lev Grossman from his most popular work, The Magicians series of novels, his newest is going to be something of a departure. The Silver Arrow is his first middle-grade book, a story of an 11-year-old girl named Kate and an enchanted train given to her as a gift by her eccentric…

Pippi Longstocking, the World’s Strongest Girl, Is Getting a New Movie

She’s an impossibly strong pirate heir with a bag of gold and no desire to take crap from anyone. Pippi Longstocking, the red-haired heroine created by classic children’s author Astrid Lindgren, is getting a new film from the folks behind one of the best children’s book adaptations of our time: Paddington. In a press release,…

Take a Perilous Journey Into Europa’s Ocean in This Science Fiction Book for Kids

Humans have long been warned about Europa, from HAL 9000’s infamous “ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE” in 2010: Odyssey Two to the more recent indie film Europa Report, where a group of scientists do land on the icy moon, only meet a grisly fate at the hands of a decidedly unwelcoming resident. None of that, however,…

Anyone Can Learn Particle Physics With This New Children’s Book

You might flee from words like “quarks,” “relativity,” and “joule,” but you shouldn’t have to, and neither should a kid. A new children’s book from the folks at a few of our national labs will hopefully make the things particle physicists are talking about easier to digest. The book, titled The ABCs of Particle Physics…

Stephen King Wrote a Horrifying Children’s Book From the Dark Tower Universe

If you thought Thomas the Tank Engine hailed from the worst parts of the Uncanny Valley, here comes Charlie the Choo-Choo to make you reevaluate that. The book and the fake author, Beryl Evans, are referenced in the actual Dark Tower mythology, specifically The Waste Lands; it’s purchased Jake Chambers at the Manhattan Restaurant of…

Instead of Taking Your Kids to See Gods of Egypt, Give Them A Copy of The Egypt Game

Gods of Egypt is here! And Gods of Egypt is terrible. But not every Egypt-centric adventure is as horrifyingly head-scratching as Gerard Butler’s latest career move. One of my all-time favorite books as a kid was The Egypt Game, which is wonderfully written and makes ancient history exciting in a unique way. https://gizmodo.com/murder-is-legal-and-torture-is-mandatory-because-gods-1761496886 Author Zilpha…

Mummy Cat Is The Utterly Adorable Undead Creature That Your Kids Will Love

Everybody loves spooky creatures and weird apparitions—but a new book about a mummified cat, called appropriately Mummy Cat, is especially wonderful. Writer Marcus Ewert and artist Lisa Brown have created a lovely children’s book about a cat who comes back every 100 years. In Mummy Cat, a loyal feline companion was mummified with his queen,…

Scandinavian Children’s Books Get Away With Way More Sex and Violence

Scandinavians are just a lot more relaxed about certain things. Like, one popular Norwegian book for eight-year-olds includes lessons on how to masturbate. Author Ingelin Røssland, writing in the Guardian, explains just how far children’s and young-adult titles can go in Scandinavia. Røssland writes: Traditionally, Scandinavian authors take a child’s world very seriously. Think of…

In New Neil Gaiman Book, Sleeping Beauty Is Woken By Snow White’s Kiss

Neil Gaiman’s upcoming children’s book, The Sleeper and the Spindle, is a richly illustrated collaboration with artist Chris Riddell that retells the story of Sleeping Beauty. But this time the princess is rescued not by a prince’s kiss, but by a queen’s. Here’s a description of the book, due out October 23rd, from Amazon: A…

Winnie the Pooh was based on a real bear that participated in WWI

Everybody loves Winnie the Pooh and his adorable addiction to honey. It’s often believed that the children’s book character is based on a teddy bear that the author, A.A. Milne, gave to his son Christopher Robin Milne. But this is only partially true. In fact, Christopher Robin named his stuffed bear after a real bear…

The walls of reality are breaking down! Over at the Guardian, children’s authors are interviewed by their own characters, as portrayed by children in costume.This is delightfully metafictional.

And the next beloved children’s book Ghibli is animating is…

When Marnie Was There, the 1967 novel by Joan G. Robinson. It was #18 on Hayao Miyazaki’s list of recommended children’s books, so this shouldn’t be a shock, although it’s worth pointing out that Marnie will be directed by The Secret World of Arriety’s Hiromasa Yonebayashi, as Miyazaki still maintains he’s retired. http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltguides/fullview/R2L7RKX8EM4IZU?tag=gizmodo08c-20 If you…

Let Oderus Urungus of GWAR read Goodnight Moon to children you hate

Know any children who won’t go to bed? Well, sit them down in front of this video, in which the demonic lead vocalist of the legendary metal band GWAR reads this classic children’s book to them. It won’t help them sleep, but they should run into their bedrooms in pure terror immediately, and that’s close…

Google’s Doodle Is a Lovely Maurice Sendak Birthday Tribute

When Maurice Sendak died in 2012, there were plenty of moving tributes—both written and crafted—celebrating his legacy. But today, which would have been his 85th birthday, Google has added another wonderful tribute to the list: a Google Doodle that leads us through his most-loved stories. The doodle begins with a 360-degree tour of Where the…

Where’s Waldo GIF: The Best Thing to Happen to Both Waldo and GIFs

While all those volumes of Where’s Waldo books sit in a dusty cardboard box in your attic, the spirit of Waldo lives on in a remarkable bit of GIFage by Redditor Swiftapple. Waldo is alive and well. And bobbing. The simple joy of spotting Waldo’s red-and-white cap in motion instantly brought me back to the…

This children’s book will teach you all about the Houses of Westeros

Bran Stark might have had an easier time learning those House mottos if he’d grown up with a book like this. mrstater posted this series from the imaginary children’s book of Game of Thrones houses, inspired by Eric Carle’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? [mrstater via Popped Culture]

Great Children’s Books That Look Death in the Eye

Children’s stories have been dealing with death since the days of fairy tales where the Princess doesn’t wake up. And some of the most soulful depictions of death aimed at kids come from the science fiction and fantasy genres. Except, in the ever-optimistic tone of children’s books, death is a mirror for how wonderful life…

Classic video games reimagined as popular children’s books

For parents who complain that their kids are playing too many video games, Caldwell Tanner’s imaginary books offer the perfect solution, blending Mario with Dr. Seuss, Pokemon with Maurice Sendak, and warning of the perils of giving Link a cuckoo. Tanner is also the illustrator behind Goodnight Dune and other scifi children’s stories. It’s a…

What Darth Vader Would Look Like If He Was a Good Dad

In an alternate Star Wars reality, maybe Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader but realized he still wanted to take care of his kids like any not evil dad would. Maybe he did all the mundane dad things too. Maybe it looked like this. Jeffrey Brown, an artist and author, is imagining that lovely and hilarious…

Batman and Bane will punch literacy into preschoolers’ brains

Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies have offered grim and mature take on the Dark Knight. But at least one set of The Dark Knight Rises tie-ins aren’t aimed at the older, violence-consuming crowd. Instead, they’re aimed at children who are just learning to read. A full month and a half before Nolan’s final bat-film hits the…