A fairly lively biography of one of the pioneers of children's literature should entertain children and adults.

John Newbery was a bookstore owner, publisher, and writer. He was quite the entrepreneur, i.e., including product placement for his health elixir in his books, pairing his books with toys to boost sales, cross-pollinating characters to create a shared universe – the sort of stuff we still see corporations doing today.

I wish the author had worked a few dates into the body of the story to better anchor the tale in history. ( )

I agree with one of the reviews I read that I would not take quite this tone if it were me writing this book. But the author does a good job introducing the topic and adding context to the Newbery Award. The illustrations are boisterous and charming. ( )

In the 1700s, bookshops were full of delightful books - for adults. Books for children, such as they were, didn't contain entertaining stories, poems, or rhymes, but moralizing and rules. John Newbery worked for a printer, then became a publisher, and he published attractive and entertaining books for children (sometimes packaged with a toy ball or a pincushion). The ALA's award for "the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children" is named after him.

Back matter includes a biography, a bibliography, further reading, and selected articles. Illustrations (pen and ink, digital media) are at once old-fashioned and lively, with lots of fun details. ( )

Balderdash! is a book that follows the life of John Newbery, and how he became one of the first people to create books specifically for children to enjoy. This is a fun book that taught me something I had not known, which is how children's literature specifically began to take off. It was interesting to see how scandalized people were at first but how popular the literature still was. This book would be a fun way to get children thinking about books and an assignment discussing kids' favorite books would pair quite well with this. ( )

Who knew kids could read without becoming feral monsters? Not adults, that's for sure.

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