The Stories Behind the Stories by Danielle Higley

"In my research of these authors, I began to see that our most treasured children's books weren't just built on creativity and imagination - many were born from an extraordinary persistence and grit."

I thought I knew many of these back stories - but I didn't. Reading this book I made so many delightful discoveries.

Did Clement Clark Moore really write The Night Before Christmas? 

Why is there a black telephone in the room (Goodnight Moon)? After all this is perhaps supposed to be a bedroom.

Do you recognise the name Bennett Cerf?  I had no idea he was the co-founder of Random House who published books by Dr Suess (Theodor Geisel). He is also the man who set Dr Seuss the 50 word challenge which led to Green Eggs and Ham.

"When CS Lewis (The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe) was sixteen, a image of a faun carrying parcels and an umbrella through a snowy wood popped into his mind."

Wilson Rawls (Where the Red Fern Grows) loved Call of the Wild which his mother read to him. He had very little education, could not spell and had no idea about punctuation or paragraphs. His burnt all his work which he had spent years writing. Luckily his wife encouraged him to rewrite his stories and she helped him with the paragraphs etc. 

Eric Carle (The Very Hungry Caterpillar) lived in Stuttgart, Germany during World War II. "There were no colours. ... Everything was greys and greens and brown greens and grey greens. ... (with the Very Hungry Caterpillar) the child inside me - who had been so suddenly and sharply uprooted and repressed - was beginning to come joyfully back to life."

When he was a young school boy Cadbury had a chocolate factory near Roald Dahl's school. The children were sometimes asked to taste the new chocolate creations. Have you made a link here?

I do like the way the Table of Contents page is presented.  The art in this book has been created using collage and fragments of book covers.  You can see inside this book on the publisher page. 

There are twenty-nine books explored here and nearly all are titles I am sure you would expect to see. Here are a few:

• Charlotte's web
• The Lion the Witch and the wardrobe
• Green Eggs and Ham
• A Wrinkle in Time
• Where the Wild things are
• The Tale of Peter Rabbit
• Peter Pan and Wendy
• Winnie-the-pooh
• Goodnight Moon
• Curious George
• The Hobbit
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Harry Potter 

And then there are other books which, while very familiar, may surprise you:

• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Henry Huggins
• Where the Red Fern Grows
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid
• Percy Jackson
• A series of Unfortunate Events
• The Boxcar children
• Nancy Drew mysteries
• The Giving Tree
• Roll of Thunder hear my Cry
• Captain Underpants
• The Magic School Bus

I have had this book on my "to buy" list for over a year. Last week I decided this could be my Book Week gift to myself even though the books inside are not Australian. 

There is a detailed bibliography at the back of this book which you could use for extra research.

A visually stunning look at how timeless stories are made. Baby Bookworm

The publisher Bushel and Peck Books donate one book to kids in need for every book they sell. They give books to schools, libraries, shelters, and other organisations. Isn't that wonderful!