Airdate: Monday, May 11 at 9 AM
Mac Barnett is a bestselling children’s book author and, since last year, the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. He has a new small book out for adults, Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children, that is a rousing defense not just of children’s books but of children themselves, as people and as readers. He writes, “If you’ve read good books to kids, you’ve probably been surprised when they noticed a detail in the pictures that you didn’t see, or been humbled when they understood something about the story you couldn’t. That’s because children tend to be better readers — more open-minded, more diligent, and more passionate — than adults.” We’ll talk to Barnett about how kids make us better readers and the enduring power of children’s books.