The Atlantic

The Books Briefing: What Stories About Childhood Teach Adults About Themselves

Your weekly guide to the best in books
Source: New York Public Library

Subscribe to our Books Briefing email newsletter, where every Friday, you’ll receive a newsletter like the one below, containing a selection of timely criticism, literary essays, reading recommendations, and more. Sign up here.

Childhood may be fleeting, but the stories, heroes, and fantasy worlds of children’s books somehow always manage to carve out space in readers’ hearts long after they’ve grown up. Of course, there’s the magical world of Harry Potter, which has continued to inspire

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Atlantic

The Atlantic4 min read
Hayao Miyazaki’s Anti-war Fantasia
Once, in a windowless conference room, I got into an argument with a minor Japanese-government official about Hayao Miyazaki. This was in 2017, three years after the director had announced his latest retirement from filmmaking. His final project was
The Atlantic3 min readDiscrimination & Race Relations
The Legacy of Charles V. Hamilton and Black Power
This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic’s archives to contextualize the present and surface delightful treasures. Sign up here. This week, The New York Times published news of the death of Charles V. Hamilton, the
The Atlantic6 min read
The Happy Way to Drop Your Grievances
Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. In 15th-century Germany, there was an expression for a chronic complainer: Greiner, Zanner, which can be translated as “whiner-grumbler.” It was no

Related Books & Audiobooks