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A Great Picture Book About The Joy Of Doing Things ‘Wrong’

‘The Backward Day’ shows why Maurice Sendak admired its trailblazing female author — and it could inspire hours of spring-break fun for a child

Janice Harayda
Lit Life

A boy walking down stairs in “The Backward Day”
Marc Simont shows a boy walking downstairs in “The Backward Day” / Penguin Random House

Young children are natural anarchists. They not only have a gift for creating disorder — they often seem to revel in it.

Perhaps that explains why they love having a “backward day” that lets them do things in reverse order, such as eating dessert first or wearing shirt the wrong way.

Ruth Krauss caught that contrarian spirit perfectly in her classic picture book, The Backward Day. Krauss is best known for The Carrot Seed but also collaborated with Maurice Sendak on eight books, including A Hole Is To Dig. Sendak saw her as a titan in the field and learned so much from her he once said, “She was my school.”

The Backward Day suggests why he or any other authors might revere her. Krauss is less well known than Goodnight Moon author Margaret Wise Brown, her contemporary and fellow member of the Writer’s Laboratory at the Bank Street School in New York City.

But like Brown, the trailblazing Krauss helped to bring children’s literature into the modern era. She did it, in part, by incorporating more naturalism into…

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Lit Life
Lit Life

Published in Lit Life

Book news, reviews and more from an award-winning critic

Janice Harayda
Janice Harayda

Written by Janice Harayda

Critic, novelist, award-winning journalist. Former book editor of the Plain Dealer and book columnist for Glamour. Words in NYT, WSJ, and other major media.

Responses (18)

What are your thoughts?

I love the idea that Ruth Krauss helped bring children's stories into the modern era, away from fairy and folk tales. I wonder what that would mean today? What would a fresh take book best get away from?

They not only have a gift for creating disorder — they often seem to revel in it

Who doesn't? 🤸

It is so refreshing to know that people still enjoy the pillar books of my childhood.