A New York Times bestseller
#1 Indie Next Pick
The May 2026 LibraryReads Notable Nonfiction Pick

“Compulsively readable… Kudos to Barnett.”
—Gregory Maguire, The New York Times

★ “Recommended to every educator and every parent. They owe it to the kids in their care and to the kids they once were." — Library Journal, Starred Review

“Barnett’s specialty is picture books, and Make Believe constitutes a full-throated defense of this form. Picture books, he argues, are not only “real books” (people he meets keep asking him when he’ll write one of those) but a real art form.”
—Slate

"Barnett offers not a sociology of reading or a history of writing. Instead, he gives us conversational essays on wonder. This is not a work of scholarship; it’s a meditation on what gives life meaning. The author’s voice comes alive, as if he’s talking to you over coffee. . . . What we realize as Barnett rises to his theme is that his goal is not so much to describe but to convince. For, in this church of storytelling, we are sinners who believe our job is to mold the child like clay. Instead, let’s grace the child with joy and, in the process, find the playful child in us. A loving sermon on the rewards of children’s books.”  —Kirkus Reviews

"'Kids’ books merit grown-up conversation,' children’s author Barnett asserts in his by turns grave and playful treatise…. It’s a poignant refresher for 'dead dull finished grown-ups' on childhood’s role as an 'in-between place full of uncertainty.’” — Publishers Weekly

“Barnett's heavily footnoted, accessible academic style and passionate viewpoint will speak to anyone who read as a child or has read to a child.” — Booklist

Purchase here.