VQR Online

We’re a worried bunch, we Americans. We’re anxious. We’re gloomy, even doomy. We’re angsty, despairing, depressed. There’s a widespread sense that things are certainly not right with the world, and perhaps not right with us. If Dickens were with us, he might call it the most uncool of times.

In the fall of 2005, at the shuttle terminal of New York’s LaGuardia airport, I entered the security line and noticed, in front of me, a slight and slightly stooped older woman. After a couple of blinks, I recognized Joan Didion.

The Fall issue celebrates children’s literature—in particular, the picture-book genre—with tales for kids and grown-ups alike. Alongside a collection of original picture-book short stories are essays on rebellion, teaching kindness to children, and the complicated legacies of some of the genre's giants.