Month: September 2012

School has started. Great news for some kids (a rare and exotic variety), bad news for some (more common), and mixed news for most. This post isn’t about a book or a series of books. It’s about making a place to be, well, Somebody: Alex Rider, Otto Malpense, Jack Gantos, Jasper Dash, you name it.

Like most people I knew the general outlines of Helen Keller’s life, and I was familiar with the iconic moment at the water pump. But I knew very little of Annie Sullivan, or the details of her actual teaching methods. What I found was astonishing – so astonishing I wanted to share it with young readers.

Mac Barnett strikes us as kind of a mad genius. He’s published many bestselling books and he’s infused his delightfully offbeat sense of humor back into the land of children’s literature. It’s a pleasure to share his thoughts on some of his favorite books, time travel, his picture book manifesto, his undisputed rivalry with Adam Rex, and that remarkable sleuth Harriet the Spy with our readers.