When Beverly Cleary's fictional Henry Huggins made his debut in 1950, he was a third grader whose "hair looked like a scrubbing brush and most of his grown-up front teeth were in." He was also bored. Apart from having his tonsils out and falling out of a cherry tree, "nothing much happened to Henry." But pretty soon after we meet him, by page three in fact, Henry comes upon a scrawny mutt who stares at him eating an ice cream cone and the adventures begin.
As parents in NYC, there is nothing better than finding events that are fun, age-appropriate, and not outrageously expensive. That's why Children's Day at the Brooklyn Book Festival is such a great annual event: it's free, designed with kids in mind, and has plenty to keep toddlers, big kids, and even tweens engaged. This year, Children's Day is on Saturday, September 20, from 10 am to 4 pm at its new location: Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza.
If you're looking for new bedtime stories to read to your kids, you may want to check out Stephen King's latest book. Yes, normally that would be a pretty terrible recommendation, but the horror novelist's new book is for children--and anyone who loves classic fairy tales. On Tuesday, HarperCollins published reimagined version of the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale Hansel and Gretel.
There are no guilty pleasures in childhood. It is only as an adult that I feel a certain sheepishness when recalling one of my favorite picture books, "Ann Likes Red," by Dorothy Z. Seymour, which was originally published in 1965. Wedged between the vaunted volumes of Gorey and Scarry, "Ann Likes Red" stuck out both literally, for its squat stature, and literarily, for its hazy lesson in self-assertion.
To mark 70 years since Kay Thompson's beloved children's character first took up residence in the "room on the tippy-top floor," the Plaza Hotel is hosting a free, two-day celebration packed with sugary treats, scavenger hunts and serious nostalgia.
Every year on World Book Day, Irish mothers find themselves caught off guard, often scrambling for last-minute costume solutions for their kids, mainly thanks to authors like Julia Donaldson.