The important thing about Margaret Wise Brown

In this quirky biography, Barnett presents factual details about author Margaret Wise Brown's life, but also focuses more on some of the unusual things she did like keep a large number of rabbits as pets (and then use their furs to make coats after they died) and buying an entire cart worth of

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flowers for a party with her first paycheck as an author. A fairly large section of the book discusses Brown's 'feud' with New York Public Library's librarians who refused to put her book in their collection for years.

I'm really not sure how to feel about this book. Going into it and expecting a straightforward biography was definitely a mistake as this weird, sort of rambling story was off-putting as a result. If you go into it knowing that it will be unusual, that would probably help. A second reading for those of us in the first category might help as well.

It's certainly not going to be a book that would be helpful for a child writing a biographical report for school. But as something just to read, it's an interesting musing about what really matters in life (is it your date of birth or your fondness for skinny-dipping in the sea outside your door?) as well as a meta look at literature. The book often calls notice to its own page length as well as pointing out things like authors being real people who go grocery shopping just like everyone else.

In the end, I would recommend this book but with the caveat that it's not your typical biography. It's an interesting bit of meta-literature about what makes a good book as well as what components of daily living make a life. It's wandering, meandering look at Margaret Wise Brown that will appeal to child readers.

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This book is hard to describe. It is about the author Margaret Wise Brown, but it is not a biography. It’s about the fact that she wrote a book that was not liked by the main lady at the New York Public Library, but that it still exists in our modern lexicon because she believed that children

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deserved weird little books. This book was so unique. The way the author chose to do the book (one page for every year of MWB’s life, but not a chronology. It’s weird but fascinating all at one time.

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