Good Books for Bad Children

In this lively, lyrical picture book biography, meet the groundbreaking, outspoken, legendary editor of the best-loved books for children, and see how she inspired Maurice Sendak, Margaret Wise Brown, and others to create Where the Wild Things Are, Good Night Moon, and many more classics.

“Ursula Nordstrom was a grown-up who never forgot what it was to be a child.” The girl who’d always loved to read would grow up to work in the Department of Books for Boys and Girls at Harper & Brothers Publishers. Soon she was editing books by Margaret Wise Brown and E. B. White, discovering new talent like John Steptoe and Maurice Sendak, and reinventing what a book for children should be. “Children want to be seen,” she’d tell her writers. “Not good enough for you,” she’d scribble in the margins of their manuscripts, asking them to revise. Her favorite books of all? “Good books for bad children,” she’d say. And those books went on to win every award imaginable, including the Caldecott and Newbery Medals and the National Book Award.