Book Reviews

Green Eggs and Ham is a landmark children's picture book published by the Beginner Books imprint of Random House on August 12, 1960, born from a $50 wager between Dr. Seuss and his editor Bennett Cerf — a bet that Seuss could not write an engaging children's book using only 50 distinct words. The result was widely praised by critics and has endured for over six decades as a staple of early childhood reading, named by The Atlantic as one of its 65 Essential Children's Books and adapted into a Netflix television series in 2019.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Eric Carle's children's picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar has sold more than 50 million copies and been translated into more than 60 languages, earning its place as one of the most enduring works in the picture book canon — a deceptively simple story of metamorphosis that doubles as an early-education tool covering counting, days of the week, and the concept of natural change.

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Originally published in 1963 and recognized with the Caldecott Medal the following year, Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are remains one of the most celebrated children's picture books ever produced, voted the number one picture book in a 2012 School Library Journal reader survey and sold over 19 million copies worldwide as of 2009.

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

First published in 1947 and reissued in a board book edition by HarperCollins, Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, with illustrations by Clement Hurd, is one of the most enduring children's bedtime books ever produced — a simple, deliberate ritual of farewells that has sold an estimated 48 million copies by 2017 and continues to sell approximately 800,000 copies annually as of 2007.

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

4.8

First published in 1964 by Harper & Row, Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree is a children's picture book that has spent six decades generating both fierce devotion and fierce debate — one of the most talked-about titles in American children's literature, and one of its most genuinely unresolved.

Matilda by Roald Dahl

4.7

Roald Dahl's Matilda is a children's novel that has endured for decades as one of the most celebrated works in its genre, following a brilliant, telekinetic girl navigating neglectful parents and a tyrannical headmistress — and winning. Originally published in 1988 by Jonathan Cape and illustrated by Quentin Blake, it has since inspired a feature film, a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, and a Netflix adaptation, cementing its status as a cornerstone of children's literature.

Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce

4.6

Philippa Pearce's Tom's Midnight Garden, first published in 1958, is a Carnegie Medal–winning children's fantasy novel that has endured for more than six decades as one of the most celebrated works in British children's literature. When twelve-year-old Tom Long is quarantined with his aunt and uncle after his brother contracts measles, a grandfather clock that strikes thirteen opens the door to a vanished Victorian garden — and to Hatty, a lonely girl who becomes his inseparable companion across time. The novel's meditation on time, loss, and friendship has earned it a place among the great works of the genre, and a 2018 anniversary edition from Greenwillow Books, illustrated by Jaime Zollars, has introduced it to a new generation of readers.

Seventy-Seven: My Road to Wimbledon Glory by Andy Murray

4.3

Andy Murray's Seventy-Seven: My Road to Wimbledon Glory is a sports memoir that chronicles his journey to becoming the first British man to win the Wimbledon title in 77 years, covering landmark victories at the 2012 Olympics, the 2012 US Open, and the 2013 Wimbledon Championship — a focused, personal record of one of British sport's most celebrated modern chapters.

The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

First published on 9 March 1776, Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations is, as Encyclopaedia Britannica describes it, "the first formulation of a comprehensive system of political economy" — a foundational treatise that redrew the intellectual map of economics, trade, and governance for centuries to come.

The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown

Brené Brown's The Gifts of Imperfection — originally published in 2010 and reissued in a tenth-anniversary edition — is the self-help work that launched a cultural movement, arguing that courage, compassion, and connection are the daily practices required to let go of perfectionism, shame, and the need for approval and to live what Brown calls a "wholehearted" life. A New York Times bestseller that has sold more than two million copies across thirty-five languages, it remains the essential entry point into Brown's body of work and the foundation from which her subsequent books and podcasts grew.

Raising Steam: A Discworld Novel by Terry Pratchett

The 40th Discworld novel sends the irrepressible Moist von Lipwig racing across the Disc on its first steam railway, balancing industrial-age comedy with a genuinely urgent political thriller — a penultimate entry that science fiction author Cory Doctorow, writing on Boing Boing, called "a spectacular novel, and a gift from a beloved writer to his millions of fans."

Making Money by Terry Pratchett

Making Money is a Discworld fantasy novel in which reformed con artist Moist von Lipwig is coerced into running the Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork, using the premise to deliver sharp satire about the nature of money, public trust, and financial institutions. First published in 2007, it won the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2008 and was nominated for the Nebula Award the same year. Critical opinion is genuinely divided — praised for its wit and humanity, and critiqued for lacking the forward momentum of its predecessor, Going Postal — making it essential for committed Discworld readers while occasionally frustrating those who rank Going Postal among the series' best.