Title Spotlight: BARKING WITH THE BIG DOGS (11/19/18)

You’ll know artist and writer Natalie Babbitt (1932–2016) from her inspiring work in children’s literature, including TUCK EVERLASTING and KNEEKNOCK RISE.

Now in BARKING WITH THE BIG DOGS: On Writing and Reading Books for Children, a collection of essays and speeches written over the course of four decades, Babbitt explores what it was like to be a “little dog” in the literary world, continually being forced to justify her choice to write books for children–instead of doing something more serious. Babbitt offers incisive commentary on classic children’s books as well as contemporary works, and reveals colorful insights into her own personal creative life. Filled with a voice that rings with truth, wisdom, and humor across the years, the essays gathered in BARKING WITH THE BIG DOGS exemplify on every page true reverence for children and an endless engagement with the challenge to write the books that shape them.

“Though their subjects vary, the pieces have in common their excellence…. In terms of her emotional themes, the unifying element is, she says, the special joy that is found only in children’s literature. It is children, as well as literature, who capture and hold her attention. She is a stalwart defender of both. As for her work, it speaks, or barks, for itself.“–Booklist