Dave Eggers, Tiki Barber and Pete Seeger Reveal the Children’s Books That Changed Their Lives

Not long ago, I thought, Wouldn’t it be interesting to ask people from different walks of life about the kids’ book that most changed them? Well, editor and author Anita Silvey has beaten me to it. She’s gone and published an entire tome of famous and not-so-famous folks’ thoughts on that very topic. And, yes, it is interesting.

Titled “Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children’s Book,” the new compilation convenes an accomplished, eclectic bunch—they’d make quite the cocktail party. There’s Tiki Barber (“The Little Engine That Could”), Pete Seeger (“Rolf in the Woods”), Steve Forbes (“The Golden Bible for Children: The New Testament”), Roger Ebert (“The Saturdays”) and Jay Leno (“Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel”).

Major kid-lit luminaries—some of whose books are other contributors’ life-changers—share too: Katherine Paterson pays tribute to “The Secret Garden,” Maurice Sendak, “Harold’s Purple Crayon,” Marc Brown, “Where the Wild Things Are,” and Lois Lowry, “The Yearling.”

And while I’d never think to ask Kathy Bates, there she is, tying Rumer Godden’s 1954 storybook about a Victorian pocket doll, “Impunity Jane,” to an early awareness of feminism.

Several of the person/book match-ups neatly link past to present: submarine designer Robert Ballard plumbs “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” while Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniack gives a shout-out to boy engineer Tom Swift. Other picks are straight off the middle-school syllabus: “Johnny Tremain” “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Diary of Young Girl.” Still, depending on who’s doing the immortalizing, even the most passed-around titles feel deeply personal, thanks to the eloquent and thoughtful remembrances.

Here’s novelist Anne Tyler on Virginia Lee Burton’s Caldecott-winning picture book “The Little House,” in which a country cottage finds the big city inching toward her yard:

When I see those words now (and when I hear them, murmuring across the decades in my mother’s voice), I recall the feeling of elderly sorrow that came over me at age four. At age four, listening to ‘The Little House,’ I had a sudden spell … of wisdom, I guess you could say. It seemed I’d been presented with a snapshot that showed me how the world worked: how the years flowed by and people altered and nothing could ever stay the same.

The best entries surprise—not only in their choices (Newbery winner Karen Hesse reveals that all her work goes back to “Horton Hatches the Egg”) but also in how beautifully they capture the unforgettable, often overwhelming feeling of falling in love with a book for the first time. Author Dave Eggers, co-screenwriter of the upcoming “Where the Wild Things Are” movie, describes his feverish introduction to the now rather quaint National Book Award-winning animal fantasy “The Book of the Dun Cow” by Walter Wangerin, Jr.:

That book was such a small thing—a lightweight paperback book—but the power contained within was really startling to me. I had dreams about the book, thought about it constantly. I kept it out of view for some time. Even seeing the cover threw me back into that world again, and the story was too strong to casually stumble upon. Only a book has that power.

In all, I expected more funny write-ups (children’s book scholar Philip Nel takes the prize with his anecdote about pretending to be Flat Stanley in the school cafeteria). And while the contributors are fairly diverse, the books chosen feature mainly white characters, a reflection, most likely, of the publishing times in which the notables grew up. But considering the overall intent of the reference, these are quibbles.

Indeed, you should certainly find a recommendation or two for your reading list. Featuring well-chosen excerpts from each title, as well as a dollop of literary context, Silvey’s fine resource shines a spotlight on many offbeat reads (anyone know “Poppy Ott”? “Emil and the Three Twins”?), as well as some amazing but overlooked children’s book creators (husband-and-wife picture book team Alice and Martin Provensen, for one).

“Everything I Need to Know” groups its books by their effect on readers (“Motivation,” “Inspiration,” “Understanding”)—a nice touch, if you’re looking for a title with a particular track record. And though I suspect that “60 Minutes” anchor Lesley Stahl doesn’t enjoy the same playground cred as Tiki Barber, in some cases you might encourage your child to give a book a try or cast an old favorite in a new light based on whom loved it as a kid.

Kirk Douglas certainly does this for me with his pick, by far the most unexpected in the book: “The Bobbsey Twins.”