Rea Berg's Book Blog

Everything I Need to Know by Anita Silvey

For children’s book lovers, the power of children’s literature to inspire, challenge, motivate, and educate is beyond dispute. It is often true that a book read as a child may determine an individual’s life course and mission.  In defense of this point, I’d like to recommend a book written by a friend and former professor at Simmons College, Boston–Anita Silvey.  While earning a master’s degree in Children’s Literature there, I had the lovely experience of sitting under Anita’s font of wisdom on every subject related to children’s books.  Her most recent book is entitled Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children’s Book and features the lives of such notable contemporary figures as Robert Ballard (whose favorite childhood read was Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne), David McCullough, Katherine Patterson, Russell Friedman and many others.  This book will reinforce a dedication to children’s books and also provide a great reading list of classic works that continue to inspire.  This book was also featured recently in a review in the Wall Street Journal which can be accessed at: