Letters to a Young Reader
edited by Maria Popova
& Claudia Bedrick
Goodreads Description:
In these pages, some of today’s most wonderful culture-makers—writers, artists, scientists, entrepreneurs, and philosophers—reflect on the joys of reading, how books broaden and deepen human experience, and the ways in which the written word has formed their own character. On the page facing each letter, an illustration by a celebrated illustrator or graphic artist presents that artist's visual response.
Among the diverse contributions are letters from Jane Goodall, Neil Gaiman, Jerome Bruner, Shonda Rhimes, Ursula K. Le Guin, Yo-Yo Ma, Judy Blume, Lena Dunham, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Jacqueline Woodson, as well as a ninety-eight-year-old Holocaust survivor, a pioneering oceanographer, and Italy’s first woman in space. Some of the illustrators, cartoonists, and graphic designers involved are Marianne Dubuc, Sean Qualls, Oliver Jeffers, Maira Kalman, Mo Willems, Isabelle Arsenault, Chris Ware, Liniers, Shaun Tan, Tomi Ungerer, and Art Spiegelman.
My Thoughts:
This unique book by Maria Popova and Claudia Bedrick is really a collection of love letters to young readers. Most of the featured contributors address their letters to those young people who they will probably never meet, but to whom they hope will receive inspiration and instruction from their years of experiencing life as adult readers & creatives. I myself was moved as I read about the remarkable journeys each extraordinary person had lived along their unexpected path to prominence. I highly recommend A Velocity of Being to all writers, and to children of every age. (Be sure to follow the talented Maria Popova, @BrainPicker, for daily inspirational articles on Twitter & Facebook.)
Click here to learn about the insightful writer, Maria Popova.
Click here to learn about the multi-talented, Claudia Bedrick.
