“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”
–Madeleine L’Engle
Laurel Snyder earned her master of fine arts in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 2000. She is the author of two recently released children’s books—Inside the [...]

It’s always a pleasure to revel in your children’s success. Such is the joy here at Little Village that two of our regular writers have penned well-received books in the last two months. But, of course, while the feeling of pride is apt, to call them our children would be a gross disservice. They’ve been [...]

Iowa City author Paul Street’s latest book, Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics, is a critical report on the phenomenal rise of the junior senator from Illinois. Street is a historian and former Chicagoan who worked for the Chicago Urban League as a policy researcher.
Obama fanatics will read this book at their own [...]

What are you selling? What’s everybody asking for these days? Who’s hot? That’s what they ask me these days at the bookstore. I’ll tell you one thing we don’t have to work very hard to sell is the new collection of hysterical David Sedaris essays, When You Are Engulfed in Flames. His many fans, who [...]

It’s time to highlight a few paperbacks that are unlikely to receive much national attention. Some are published by small publishers, which can’t buy expensive lunches for the New York Times reviewers. Others have been out of print for a while and are being republished on the chance that they might find their audience on [...]