Gorky Rises

I like all William Steig books. They are thoughtful, intelligent, funny, and well written. I adore his illustrations.

I bought this for a "future time," but our 2 yr old actually likes it now. Sometimes he only makes it through half, but he still picks it out for bedtime. The illustrations and language are wonderful. This is one of the stories that my husband doesn't get tired of reading over and over to the baby.

I read this story to my son when he was a little tyke. He's now nearly 20. I haven't read the book in years, yet, lately, I've been thinking a lot about Gorky and his travels away from home, up into the "blue, blue sky". Guess it has something to do with my 3 kids all about ready to take off on their own. The prose is marvelous, full of colorful and descriptive language, the story is beautiful, about the joy and pain of growing up and away, and the illustrations are an added benefit, though unnecessary due to the ability of the author to draw wonderful pictures with his magical use of the English language. Thank you William Steig!