The author’s voice comes alive, as if he’s talking to you over coffee. Kirkus
"Children's books are widely read, deeply loved, highly profitable literature that receives almost no serious critical attention - a least not from adults. Children's books are often misunderstood, dismissed, and ignored."
"Kids' books merit grown-up conversation." Kids "deserve entertaining stories and meaningful art."
"The children's writer must always respect the child. It is our job to approach the reader in a spirit of play and fellow feelings."
"Childhood is a long series of experiments - testing our hypotheses and making adjustments. It seems only right that so much of the best children's literature is experimental too."
There has been SO much controversy over this slim 90-page book/essay but in my reading I feel as though the anger and upset have come from people who just 'didn't get' the tone of this book. Sure this book is discussing a very serious topic or topics, but the commentary comes with a huge dose of the cheeky voice of Mac Barnett. By the end of page ten he had me totally hooked because even that early in the book, I had nodded and smiled and resoundingly agreed with his analysis several times.
Here are lots of quotes from this book that resonated deeply with me!
When will you write a real book (meaning an adult book): "After twenty years of writing children's books I have become so practiced at answering this question that sometimes I'm even able to appear not remotely annoyed when I recite some version of the same thing: Children's books are real books; kids are ideal readers, especially of literary fiction; and finally no, I do not plan on ever writing a book for adults."
My comment - people ask me what adult books I read. Why do I blog and read kids books? It also infuriates me.
"Didactisim, always the enemy of good storytelling, is rampant in children's books, thanks to our long-standing insistence on stories that teach kids lessons."
My comment Hooray - I am SO aware of this, especially in picture books and books like this generally make me cringe and certainly make discard them quickly.
"The children's book author is under no obligation to instruct or encourage or explain. Our only duty is to tell good stories. And the best stories for kids - like the best stories for adults, tell the truth about what it means to be human in the world. But it means some thing very different to be a child in this world than it does to be an adult. The best children's writers tell the truth in a way that is recognisable and authentic to children."
My comment YES YES authentic please. I won't share the title or author here but there is a book from a couple of years ago that featured a melting glacier and a child on a journey. Surely by the end of the book, in the warm sunshine, the little piece of ice would all be gone - but NO. An utterly ridiculous book and such a waste of resources to publish it but of course this is one of those dreadful celebrity titles. If you browse (sorry to name names) Scholastic Australia book club brochures you will discover lots more examples of this - bad stories, bad storytelling, books that in my view should never have been published.
" ... children's books must be as varied as the lives of the children who read them. When children cannot find their experiences and emotions - their fear, jealousy, sadness and anger - reflected in the stories they read, two things can happen ... kids may abandon reading (or) ... children may decide that there is something wrong with themselves, ... this outcome should be unbearable to us all."
"By treating the child's experiences with dignity and compassion, the children's writer can often get to the very essence of human experience."
My comment - thank goodness for book lists such as The Empathy Lab and three cheers for all the people who talk about representation in books for kids. This is a huge topic and one I am sure you are very familiar with.
94.7% is crud
The BIG arguments around this book, though, come on page 19 and that wild statistic of 94.7%! More on that in a minute BUT previously on page 11 Mac Barnett says:
"A healthy children's literature will contain great works of art, but there will also be plenty of trash, because trash is a necessary by product of art making, and also because trash can be fun to read, and children as much a right to enjoy trash as adults do."
"There are so many bad kids' books and kids' books are bad in so many different ways. There are treacly ones, and preachy ones, and ones that don't make any sense; books that are supposed to rhyme but don't; books with amateurish writing, or amateurish illustrations, or both; bland books; boring books. But I would point out lots of adults books are bad too!"
I am tempted at this point to share with you the covers of a couple of books that are really bad especially ones by 'sports stars' and comedians.
"People get the idea that it's easy to write a children's book, when really it's just easy to write a bad one."
My comment - this has the same effect on me as the people who wonder when I am going to read 'grown-ups' books. It is not easy to write a fabulous book for children - the best evidence of this comes from the really top authors such as Kate DiCamillo who often talks about her own writing journey. I recently attended an author talk about a picture book and the creator said it took four years from the original idea through to its publication this year. And Anna Walker (an award winning Australian author/illustrator took seven years to create her latest book. When I worked as a national judge for our Children's Book Council annual awards I was utterly shocked by so many of the picture books that were submitted. I have kept a small collection of the worst ones which most certainly demonstrate 'it's really easy to write a bad one.'
Mac Barnett describes categories or buckets that we could use to sort kids' books - one is propaganda and another is books that are '"soul nourishing, entertaining, and well crafted - stories written for children as they actually are and not as adult would like them to be." I know which ones I want to read.
Paraphrasing he says 'many adults are often surprised by the meaning they find in the pages of kids' books'. I could cite so many fantastic examples.
"A children's writer must have the same talents that all writers, in varying amounts possess - control of language, a sense of rhythm and pace, appreciate of beauty, a knack for character, a strong point of view - an on top of all of that, the ability to connect with kids."
"Even a story with a lesson should always be judged by how effectively that lesson is conveyed, not how worthy its message or how important we think it is for kids to hear."
Mac Barnett suggests we look no further an Aesop for terrific examples of this.
"when (kids) encounter a story that makes demands of the reader - a story that requires thought and feeling and imagination in order to be fully understood - kids do what they do so well, so many times each day. They bravely work to comprehend the new."
My comment - share this with the parents in your school - the ones who ask for easy books, the ones who ask for 'hard' books and the ones who settle for and even encourage their kids to read every book from a mediocre series.
I love his two examples on page 38 - garbage trucks and the moon - here are the wonderful books I thought of:
"Four pages into this slim new volume of narrative theory, I began pumping my fists in the air like a roomful of elementary-schoolers when someone hits play on 'Golden.' A few pages later, I began texting quotes to friends and reading bits out loud to my family." New York Magazine
"A magnificent piece of writing—funny and sharp and true. Every adult should read it, whether or not they have a child. I loved it.” Katherine Rundell, author of Impossible Creatures (Make sure you read this book about kids and books and read by Katherine Rundell).
Going back to the 94.7 comment. First off this is a crazy and therefore in my view rather silly statistic - it is not meant to be taken literally. I loathe the use of statistics in our modern world. To my eye this number is designed to jolt you, yes, but not mean only 5 books in one hundred are 'good'. The real impact/condemnation of this comment by Mac Barnett more appropriately comes from his use of the word 'crud'. That is indeed a strong word. It did jolt me but I actually agree with Mac about this - not the percentage. There are so many fantastic books - and of course too many that could/should be so much better.
I was intrigued to read the review of Make Believe in our Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald last weekend. First off children's books or books about children's books very rarely reach this newspaper column. I had already seen all the vitriol and commentary about that 94.7 comment so I expected the reviewer to add her 'five cents worth' to this debate but she didn't. She did focus on part of the book which explores Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown - meaning this book could have less interest to an Australian adult who enjoys reading literary criticism of children's books because Goodnight Moon is not a very high-profile book here. Mac Barnett talks about Goodnight Moon here.
Make Believe has only just been released here in Australia (June 2026) - it arrived in the US a few months ago. I was pleased to see it in a local bookstore this morning but sadly it was hidden on a shelf filled full of other literary criticism titles - I do wish the shop had put this book over near the children's section so it might be found and read.
Now that you have read my rambling thoughts about Make Believe take a look at these posts if you want to better understand both sides of the debate and controversy:
Mac Barnett Is Right. Mac Barnett Is Also a Snob. Afoma Umesi
Mac Barnett Responds Amid Continued Backlash SLJ Kara Yorio
A New Manifesto for Children’s Literature New York Times by Gregory Maguire (DNYUZ)
National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Mac Barnett talks about his new book NPR
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