We are four authors who’ve read thousands of books. These are our childhood faves!

Matilda, by Roald Dahl

Christine Evans, award-winning author

of picture books Dear Mr. G, Evelyn the Adventurous Entomologist, and chapter book series The Wish Library. Pre-order her latest Middle Grade book Top Secret Animals, coming July 2027! Follow her at https://pinwheelsandstories.com.

I was a big reader as a kid (nothing’s changed)! Even after my parents thought I’d gone to bed I’d keep reading using the light coming in my bedroom door from the hallway. One of my favorites was Matilda by Roald Dahl. I loved how she was strong and stood up for what was right. And the book was very funny! I couldn’t ever imagine being like Matilda but I loved her story (and many other Roald Dahl books too like the BFG).

Where the Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls

Margaret Chiu Greanias, author

of Maximillian Villainous, Amah Faraway, Hooked on Books, and How this Book got Red. Margaret writes books to delight children. Pre-order her latest book, Friendship is an Invitation, coming July 2027.

I really loved “Where the Red Fern Grows” by Wilson Rawls, which is about a boy in the Ozark Mountains of Oklahoma who longs for and then trains two hounds for raccoon hunting. This may seem like a strange choice for an Asian girl growing up in an immigrant family in California, but I think this speaks to the power of a good story and a lively imagination. I found my way into the story through my love of dogs. I remember being riveted, and it is the first book that made me cry.

Corduroy, Don Freeman

Shirley Ng-Benitez, author/illustrator/maker

Shirley Ng-Benitez is an author, illustrator, and maker of stories by hand & heart. Her picture book debut, DOWN, THROUGH, UP, arriving 3/2/2027 from Harper, is available for preorder at shirleyngbenitez.com!

My favorite book as a child was CORDUROY by Don Freeman. There was something that drew me right into sweet little Corduroy and his quest to find his missing button. I wanted to help him find it too. He was so determined after feeling that he might have been “less than”. I was a really quiet child and stayed to myself, so I didn’t have friends. Reading Corduroy must have given me comfort as I looked at the characters in my children’s books and felt that they were my best friends. I felt that little Corduroy deserved all the love and attention that he finally got from the one who saw how awesome he was, just as he was. And when he found what he’d been looking for (and vice versa for the little girl) it was pure magic! I still am so grateful for this book, and so many other children’s books through the years.

The 14 Mice series, by Iwamura Kazuo

Karen E. Hong, author-illustrator

of “Tea Leaf Eggs” coming out Feb 2027. Pre-order now at https://karenhong.art/books. Check out this Instagram post to see how the 14 Mice influenced her main character in “Tea Leaf Eggs”!

The 14 Mice series by the late Iwamura Kazuo. I loved seeing the everyday scenes of the three generations of mice living in nature! I believe his worldview was that people should live in gentle companionship with one another, and in harmony with nature.

I also really enjoyed Roald Dahl’s books for children. As an adult, I understand why some parts are highly problematic (I had a lot to explain to my kids!), but his books still hold a lot of magic when read aloud.

This week, my 9-year-old was especially cranky waking up one morning. That same day, I went to put his bedsheets into the wash. As I took off the pillowcase, a stack of Roald Dahl books fell out. He had been reading them in the middle of the night!

Podcast recommendation for the grown-ups:

The Secret World of Roald Dahl

(iHeart, Apple Podcasts, Spotify).

“No children’s author of the past 30 years has regularly sparked more controversy than Roald Dahl. On the one hand, kids consistently name him their favorite writer.” - The Washington Post’s obituary for Dahl in 1990, quoted in the podcast.

Here’s a dark, twisty, fascinating documentary of the well-known writer, from creator and host Aaron Tracy.

Wow Nathan! What a question to start us off! Thank you for asking it.

We may think of a book as a stack of pages bound together, with writing on it. The earliest book, where sheets of paper were bound on one side, was called a codex. Codices (plural for codex) were found as early as the first century in Egypt and the Roman Empire.

The “Codex Gigas”, a large Latin Bible, from about 1300 CE* Bohemia (now the Czech Republic). (Image attributed to Kungl. Biblioteket, from Wikipedia.org)

The “Dresden Codex”, from the Mayan civilization (region of Mexico), dating back to about 1200 – 1345 CE. (Public domain image, from Wikipedia.org)

However, books did not just come about at a single moment in history. Before the bound format, written materials appeared in history as manuscripts, scrolls, and several other formats. The form of the book was a huge improvement over the other formats, for ease of reading and carrying around!

Books involved several main human inventions – material, language, and the ink that put the writing on the material. Most importantly, the invention of the printing press allowed books to be made quickly, and for many people. Let’s see how these inventions evolved to deliver the modern-day book that we know!

Materials for writing on

The paper that we know today is attributed to an invention in 100 CE by a Chinese court official named Tsai Lun. He mixed the bark of mulberry trees and bamboo, pounded the mixture, and drained it through a cloth to obtain the fibers. The fibers were dried to make paper – lightweight, cheap, and easy to make.

However, as you can see from this diagram, people all over the world were independently trying to figure out how to improve the materials for writing on!

Just for laughs

Ordering a book in 200 BCE China before the invention of paper would have meant the delivery of hundreds of bamboo scrolls! What a labor-intensive effort!

Ink and writing instruments

Tally marks of numbers or dates were found on bones as early as 30,000 BCE, in Europe and Africa! The more recent development of ink and writing instruments coincides with the development of materials for writing on. When the printing press was created, it replaced the laborious hand-copying of books. More on that in a minute! Colored inks were introduced in 1770s, and colored printing was introduced in the 1900s.

Language and Writing

Language is how we convey meaning to one another. The best-known systems of language and writing developed independently in the ancient Near East, China, and South Americas. These led to languages spoken and written by large civilizations and regions of the world.

The Printing Press

Ancient books were handwritten, which cost a lot and took a long time to make! Around 1450, the German Johannes Gutenberg developed the first printing press in Europe. In the design, a flat plate pushed a wooden frame holding paper down onto inked metal type.

A replica of the Gutenberg Press at the International Printing Museum in Carson, CA. (Public domain image, from Wikipedia.org)

Video: See the Gutenberg Press in action

The printing press produced many books in a much shorter time, and allowed anyone who wasn’t rich to afford a book!

And that’s an abbreviated history of when (and how) books were invented.

*Note:

BCE and CE refer to “Before the Common Era” and “Common Era”. Similar to to BC and AD (“Before Christ” and “Anno Domini”), they refer to the years before and after the birth of Jesus Christ. This system of counting calendar years was established around 525 CE during the Byzantine empire.

Text and drawings by:

Karen E. Hong, an author and illustrator from the San Francisco Bay Area in California. Karen’s picture book “Tea Leaf Eggs” will be released in Feb 2027 -- pre-order here!

Sources:

Wikipedia.org

History: From the Dawn of Civilization to the Present Day, by the Smithsonian Institution

Britannica all new Kids’ Encyclopedia, by Christopher Lloyd with >100 experts

Book recommendations:

For the grown-ups: “Cloud Cuckoo Land” by Anthony Doerr is based on an ancient codex.

To learn more about printing, visit:

Letterpress printing museum around the world

Book Arts Centers worldwide

The American Bookbinders Museum in San Francisco, CA

The International Printing Museum, Carson (Los Angeles area), CA