Featuring 367 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfictionand Children's & Teen KIRKUSVOL. LXXXIII, NO. 15 | 1 AUGUST 2015 REVIEWS The story behind the lost Dr. Seuss manuscript p. 104 from the editor’s desk: July Is the Newsiest Month Chairman BY CLAIBORNE SMITH HERBERT SIMON President & Publisher MARC WINKELMAN # Photo courtesy Michael Thad Carter courtesy Photo Chief Executive Officer The two most headline-grabbing books of this summer are Go Set a MEG LABORDE KUEHN
[email protected] Watchman by Harper Lee and What Pet Should I Get? by Dr. Seuss. One Editor in Chief is mired in controversy, suspicion, and anxiety, while the other has been CLAIBORNE SMITH greeted with heartwarming smiles. There are a number of explanations
[email protected] Managing/Nonfiction Editor for the divergent reactions: Dr. Seuss has made children smile for a very ERIC LIEBETRAU long time (children who are now adults nostalgic for their youths), while
[email protected] Fiction Editor many readers seem concerned that Lee, who is in a wheelchair and hard LAURIE MUCHNICK of hearing, is being taken advantage of in her old age and may not have
[email protected] Children’s & Teen Editor knowingly approved of the publication of Watchman. Isn’t it also slightly VICKY SMITH Claiborne Smith more difficult to inspire conspiratorial thinking about a writer who
[email protected] Mysteries Editor passed away some time ago? Theodor Geisel, whom we know as Dr. Seuss, died in 1991. THOMAS LEITCH I’m writing this the day that Go Set a Watchman was released, July 14. The revelation that Contributing Editor Atticus Finch joins a segregationist citizens’ council GREGORY McNAMEE Senior Indie Editor some 20 years after he defended an innocent African- KAREN SCHECHNER
[email protected] American man in To Kill a Mockingbird has added Indie Editor disappointment to the already present controversy RYAN LEAHEY
[email protected] about the discovery of Go Set a Watchman.