Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children's Literature by Betsy Bird, Julie Danielson and Peter D Sieruta

"Told conversationally, moving easily from book banning to social politics to plain old sour grapes, this collection dispels any notion that children’s literature is apolitical and humorless. Librarians, writers, teachers, scholars, and enthusiastic readers alike will revel in the information that complicates the world of children’s literature."  VOYA

This book, Wild Things from 2014, is an easy to read critical look at various aspects of children's writing such as banned books, critics versus popular titles, celebrities writing children's books and the post Potter world. It is from a US perspective but children's literature fans here in Australia will be familiar with nearly all of the titles which are cited.

The chapter that resonated with me was entitled:

And to think I saw it on Hollywood Boulevard: The celebrity Children's Book Craze

I have been reading advanced reader copies of novels this year from Australian publishers and by Australian authors. Quite a few have been written by 'celebrities' although I am often ignorant of their celebrity status. Nearly all have been quite hopeless and so you haven't read about them here on my blog. Remember all book comments are subjective and it may that you loved a recent celebrity title or perhaps it was the one book that helped your child on the path to reading and that is great but with so many books flooding the market every month I worry about three things - are all these titles worthy of a huge investment by a publishing company, have other wonderful books been overlooked because of budget constraints and is there a way to rediscover the wonderful books of the past that may have slipped past our attention especially the attention of gate keepers like Teachers and Teacher-Librarians. Perhaps these older titles deserve publication in preference to the "five minute wonder" celebrity title.

Betsy Bird makes some very astute comments about the trend of publishing books by celebrities. Here are a few quotes:

"If we sound cranky, it's because it often seems that what lies behind your typical celebrity book is an inherent level of disrespect for the craft of children's literature."

"Certainly during challenging economic times, publishers feel great pressure to sell blockbusters, drawing attention away from lesser-known authors and illustrators. There's no doubt that publishing is driven by sales, and just the right celebrity book can bring in the big bucks."

Here is a comment about the children who are offered these books:

"... it's the poor tots of this world who not only have to read the often patronizing, flat prose offered by most celebrity authors, ... (but luckily) children are unrelenting critics, and they do not care about the number of movies or television shows in which someone has starred. ... They just want to read a good book."

My question on this issue is - in let's say five years, or even less, will these books by current celebrities still appear in bookshops? I am guessing, in most cases, probably not.

Here is a fun review of this book by Travis Jonker where he talks to the ghosts of famous children's authors about this book. Read more praise for this book here.