Goodbye, Eric Carle

Also this week: Black bookstores look back on the past year, critics' picks and more

View this email online by Petra Mayer Jonathan Wiggs/ The Boston Globe via Getty Images Awww man -- it hurts to start the newsletter this way, but this week we learned about the passing of Eric Carle, the beloved creator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. He was 91. Reading a Carle book was like looking at the sun through stained glass, glowing with friendly cheer, much like the man himself. He told NPR in 2007 that he thought of Caterpillar as a book of hope,"that you little, insignificant, ugly thing can grow into big, beautiful butterfly and unfold your wings, unfold your talent and fly into the world." My favorite thing I learned this week: Apparently Carle lost a dustup with his editor over whether the caterpillar ought to suffer a stomachache for his gluttony. "The caterpillar is, after all, very hungry, as sometimes we all are," he told author Clare Pollard. "He has recognized an immense appetite within him and has indulged it, and the experience transforms him, betters him. Including the punitive stomachache ruined the effect. It compromised the book." Our own Neda Ulaby has a lovely remembrance of Carle here -- with links to several interviews he did with NPR. It's been a rough week for classic children's book illustrators, in fact -- we just found out that Lois Ehlert, who drew Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (which earned a spot on our list of 100 favorite kids' books last year) passed away on Tuesday at the age of 86. (David Wiesner, you're on notice: Please live forever.) Newsletter continues after sponsor message Bonnie Jo Mount/Getty Images A year ago, there weren't any books about white privilege, anti-Blackness or policing on the bestseller lists -- and then George Floyd was murdered, and by the next month almost 70% of the books on the New York Times bestseller list were grappling with race. Sales at Black bookstores boomed as people rushed to buy anti-racist reading. But a year later, was it a movement, or just a moment? All Things Considered producer Jason Fuller talked to the owners of three Black bookstores about the past year, and how business is. Derrick Young, owner of Washington, D.C.'s Mahogany Books, says he is noticing more white customers coming into his store. "We're definitely seeing more people who seem like they're really willing to do the work; we see people who aren't just picking up notable bestsellers like White Fragility." Check out the full story here.   Our pals at Fresh Air talked to Dawnie Walton, whose debut novel The Final Revival of Opal & Nev follows a fictional interracial rock duo from the 1970s who become famous when a terrible event happens at one of their concerts. The story is told in the form of an oral history written years later by a Black journalist -- Walton tells Terry Gross that her own former life as a journalist helped her write Opal & Nev: "There's so much of that career in this book ... all of those things really informed a lot of what was on my mind and on my heart."   We jump forward a few decades with YA author David Yoon's first novel for adults: Version Zero tells the story of a data guy who discovers his employers, a lightly fictionalized social media platform called Wren, are doing nefarious things with the data he collects. He blows the whistle, gets fired and blacklisted, and decides to take revenge.  Yoon also credits his past, this time in the tech world, for helping him set the scene -- though unlike his protagonist Max, he's never tried to reboot the entire internet. Check out his conversation with Scott Simon here. Finally this week -- Mieko Kawakami's publishers have followed up her success with last year's Breasts and Eggs by releasing a new translation of her 2016 novel Heaven. Critic Lily Meyer calls it "a raw, painful, and tender portrait of adolescent misery." NPR politics editor Ron Elving says Michael Dobbs' King Richard: Nixon and Watergate, An American Tragedy is "a vivid retelling of both the crime story and the human stories around it." And our spring YA roundup focuses on AAPI authors and Asian diaspora characters, with two seemingly disparate stories -- one set in the past, one in a dystopian future -- that turn out to have surprising connections.   I hope books bring you what you need this week! — Petra Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WBEZ (edit station). What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: books@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Music, Pop Culture, Code Switch and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Books emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy