Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book: Life Lessons from Notable People from All Walks of Life »

With a unique career in children's books, ANITA SILVEY has served both as the Editor of THE HORN BOOK MAGAZINE and Publisher of a major children's book imprint. SHe is the author of several books, and she lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

"What children's book changed the way you see the world?"

Anita Silvey asked this question to more than one hundred of our most respected and admired leaders in society, and she learned about the books that shaped financiers, actors, singers, athletes, activists, artists, comic book creators, novelists, illustrators, teachers...

The lessons they recall are inspiring, instructive, and illuminating. And the books they remember resonate as influential reading choices for families. EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED FROM A CHILDREN'S BOOK—with its full color excerpts of beloved children's books, is a treasury and a guide: a collection of fascinating essays and THE gift book of the year for families.

Publishers Weekly

Over 100 noteworthy figures, from Ursula K. Le Guin to Jay Leno, convey lessons learned from specific children’s books in this affirming collaboration, which is divided into six thematic sections and features full-color images. For each selection, a contributor provides a brief essay about how the book influenced him or her, accompanied by an excerpt. The divergent articulations on the impact of such stories as The Secret Garden (“What was the gift of this magical book?” muses Katherine Paterson. “Then I realize that it was wonder”) and Little House in the Big Woods (“[T]he romance of the family’s wanderlust and their almost unflagging good spirits... shone from the pages,” writes Emily Bazelon of Slate.com) create a moving patchwork message about the transformative powers of reading. (Oct.)