Who?
Scholar of children’s literature and comics. Best-known for work on radical and anti-racist children’s literature, Crockett Johnson, and Dr. Seuss – especially Was the Cat in the Hat Black?
Crockett Johnson
Learn about the creator of Barnaby and Harold and the Purple Crayon via my (archived) Crockett Johnson Homepage and other writings.
Nine Kinds of Pie
Recent Posts
- Why Are People Afraid of Multicultural Children’s Books? (Geschichte der Gegenwart)
Why are people afraid of multicultural children’s books? To answer that question, I look back to the roots of American censorship — which, as you doubtless know, has been enjoying a renaissance lately. My piece makes its debut today in Geschichte der Gegenwart, a Swiss publication the title of which means History of the Present. That’s - Syd Hoff’s The Ruling Clawss: unboxing!
Look what just arrived in the mail! This is Syd Hoff’s first book. But you probably don’t know it. It was published under a pseudonym in 1935. And it’s never been republished — until now. Also, Syd Hoff didn’t want you to know about it. I tell that story and others in my introduction to the - Keep on shining. #PlagueSongs, no. 41
Since the pandemic is now over-ish, I’m posting what I had intended to post as my final “Plague Song,” last March: Carsie Blanton’s “Buck Up”! I never quite got around to it last year. Several reasons. The pandemic doesn’t have a definitive end point because, well, we will still need vaccinations, which are unequally distributed,