Issue link: https://h2.relevantize.com/i/468109
/ . / B O O K S ➻ F R I E N D O F D $ A $ L $ S $ ➸ I remember exactly where I was when I read the short story, "Pastoralia," by George Saunders: I was finishing lunch at my desk, back when I had hair and worked at Esquire magazine. As soon as I finished, I copied it and—this was 2000, remember—faxed it to a couple of the writers I worked with, no cover note attached. I thought it would inspire them. A few hours later, the emails started coming in: "I'm never going to write again." "Jesus, man." "Why would you do that to me?" Would I do this again? I would. Because great writing is inspiring and George Saunders is a great and inspired writer. He has the distinc- Let's start with Kashtanka, by Anton Chekhov and Gennady Spirin (Ages 9-12). I've written about this at length at Lane Smith's excellent website, but suYce to say it's a beautiful, simple, kind-hearted story with illustrations that are beautiful and realistic with just the right touch of oddness. Speaking of Lane Smith, who is, to my mind, the greatest kids' book illustrator of our time, I'd recommend all his books but maybe particu- larly an early one, The Happy Hocky Family (Ages 4-8). It's funny and arch but at its core is a feeling of real familial love. With Lane, every book has its own feeling, and this one is sort of minimal and yet emo- tive—right up my alley. Back when we were doing Frip together, Lane turned me on to The Shrinking of Treehorn, by Florence Parrry Heide (Ages 6-8). This is one of those books that stakes out its claim to greatness by showing something that, though harsh, is also deeply true: Grownups Well, to start with, an apology/disclaimer. Our kids are grown and I've been away from kids' books for awhile, although I well re- member the thrill, on a cold autumn night, of snuggling in with both our girls and feeling like: ah, day is done, all is well. Some of what follows may be old news, but hopefully one or two will be new to you. --GS George Saunders tion of being the author of some of my all- time favorite grown-up fiction (my favorite is the story collection, Pastoralia, but really: you can't go wrong), my all-time favorite kid fiction (The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip, see page 13), and some of my favorite non-fic- tion (check out "The Braindead Megaphone" sometime). He's also a genius. (True story: he's a winner of the crazy-prestigious Mac- Arthur "genius" grant.) What I'm saying is, we love George Saunders, and his beautiful, generous view of the world. We asked him for his list of favorite kid books, and here's what he sent us. We bought all of them. —Andy often don't see kids and don't listen to them. The illustrations are masterpieces of 1970s cool, by the great Edward Gorey. I love The Hundred Dresses (by Eleanor Estes, illustrated Louis Slobodkin, ages 7-9) for a similar reason. On this ostensibly small palette of a kid's book, Estes has told a deep unsettling truth, one that we seem to be forgetting; as Terry Eagleton put it: "Capital- ism plunders the sensuality of the body." Here, poverty equals petty humiliation, which drives a child, Wanda Petronski, to lie, and be teased for the lie, and then to create something beautiful—but the great heart- dropping trick of this book is that the other characters in the book discover Wanda's inner beauty late, too late, and she is already far away, and never gets to learn she has devas- tated them with her work of art, and changed her vision of the world. This is a book that, I think, has the potential to rear- range a child's moral universe in an enduring way. George's Picks 11