Join an international crew of guests as they discuss Jerry Griswold’s new “Behind Children’s Books” — Everything is different this year. My new Behind Children’s Books is available from Amazon as a paperback ($9.95; 148 pp) or can downloaded as an e-book ($7.95). But what about a book launch, now that bookstores are shuttered? …

May 15, 2020. Jerry Griswold’s new book offers “Backstories & Revelations” about classic and contemporary children’s stories — How were Ronald Reagan’s political views shaped by his favorite childhood books? What does Margaret Hamilton (the Wicked Witch of the West) say is the very heart of “The Wizard of Oz”? And what explains the preponderance of bears in children’s books and flying in African-American stories?

Backstories & Revelations by Jerry Griswold — “Great stay-at-home reading” — Kate Bernheimer How were Ronald Reagan’s political views shaped by his favorite childhood books? What does Margaret Hamilton (the Wicked Witch of the West) say is the very heart of “The Wizard of Oz”? And what explains the preponderance of bears in children’s books and flying…

“Like a famished alley mutt, he digs away at the bone of truth” — Chicago is most often called the Second City by people prepared to drive six hours rather than spend a weekend in their own part of the Midwest. …

They began with injured horses in World War I —

“Japan” for American writers, Zen & kids’ books, my Tokyo interview with Marcia Brown, Miyazaki, Banana Yoshimoto, Zen lit crit, more The “Japan” of Recent American Writers Dharma Bums, Then and Now (from the Los Angeles Times Book Review)medium.com Zen & Kids’ Books Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki repeatedly encouraged his students to acquire “Beginner’s Mind”medium.com Marcia Brown: The Tokyo Interview “We need the stranger to understand ourselves”medium.com

Disney’s politics in the era of the New Deal and FDR (from the NYTimes Book Review) — Mickey Mouse was introduced to the world on November 18, 1928, in “Steamboat Willie,” the first cartoon talkie. In 1978 the David McKay Company, noting that it was “Mickey’s first hardcover publisher,” reproduced from the color originals the first three books in which the mouse appeared. …

Food and the dead, Irish begging door-to-door, Tim Burton’s “Nightmare Before Christmas,” Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” — Halloween, an event now celebrated in many parts of the world, has come to mean different things to different people. For adults, the holiday has acquired a Mardi-Gras flavor and offers opportunities to pose at parties and bars as preening pimps and naughty nurses. Spandex, it seems, has liberated many…