I wrote about these picture book authors last year, all of whom deserve your attention and that of your children:

Roger Antoine Duvoisin
Phyllis Krasilovsky
Allen Say
Tasha Tudor

Tasha Tudor deserves much more of a post, but I’m not prepared to write it today. However, I found out that a much more famous author has a birthday today, too. Leo Tolstoy was born on this date in 1828. Question: which of you has read both Anna Karenina and War and Peace? Which did you like better? If you haven’t read them, why not?

From War and Peace

“Princess Marya, Natasha, and Pierre all experienced that feeling of constraint that usually follows a serious, heartfelt talk. To resume the same conversation is impossible, to talk of trifles soesn’t seem right, and yet the desire to speak is there and silence seems an affectation.”

“Pierre’s madness consisted in not waiting, as he had formerly done, to discover personal attributes which he called ‘good qualities’ in people before loving them; his heart overflowed with love, and by loving without cause he never failed to discover undeniable reasons for loving.”

Final question: does anyone else have trouble with Russian names when you read a Russian novel? The characters all have so many names. In War and Peace, there are the following characters, to name only a few:

Pyotr Kirilovitch Bezukov (also called Pierre or Petrushka or Count Bezukov)
Princess Elena Vasilyevna Kuragina (also called Helene or Ellen)
Princess Marya Nikoleyevna Bolkonskaya
Natalya Rostova (also called Natasha)
Count Pyotr Ilyich Rostov (also Petya)

Too many names, used interchangeably. But it’s a great story, nevertheless.