03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Cressida Cowell Loves to Peruse Recipes Before Bed
In an email interview, the writer and illustrator explained why she's tailored the new book, 'Doom of the Darkwing,' to visually sophisticated children. SCOTT HELLER
Can a great book be badly written? What other criteria can overcome bad prose?
Reading is like eating, you can have a varied diet and enjoy it all. And 'great' is of course subjective. But a book that stands the test of time is usually one with the perfect words for its audience: 'Middlemarch' and 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' are both exemplars of that in very different ways.
What's the last great book you read?
'John & Paul,' by Ian Leslie, a fascinating account of the creative relationship between John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
What kind of reader were you as a child?
I spent all my summers on an island in Scotland with no television, and I read anything I could get my hands on. Ursula K. Le Guin's 'A Wizard of Earthsea,' anything by Diana Wynne Jones or Tolkien, the 'Oz' books by L. Frank Baum, Lloyd Alexander's 'The Book of Three,' Laura Ingalls Wilder's 'Little House on the Prairie' and Louisa May Alcott's 'Little Women' were particular favorites.
Have you ever gotten in trouble for reading a book?
My mother didn't like me reading Enid Blyton books because she thought they were badly written. I took them all out of the library and read them anyway.
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