For more than half a century, Weston Woods has been regarded as the leading creative force in the production of films for children. The list of the authors and artists whose works have been transformed from books into films by the studio includes the most significant figures in children's literature—from Robert McCloskey, William Steig, and Maurice Sendak to Margaret Mahy, Sims Taback, Rosemary Wells, and Mo Willems. In this lush nonfiction volume—rich with archival photographs, animation cells, historical references, and first-person accounts—readers get a personal, behind-the-scenes look at Weston Woods Studios' founder Mort Schindel and his creative empire that has garnered nearly every award for distinguished productions in the field of children's media. This is a fascinating look at Weston Woods and its creator, Morton Schindel. Rich with full-color archival photographs, detailed production notes, animation cels, and first-person accounts, the book gives readers a personal, behind-the-scenes look at the man and the studio that has animated most of the great works of children's literature from the mid-20th century to the present. As Maurice Sendak writes in the introduction, "It was nirvana in Weston Woods—there was such great freedom. Looking back on it, you can hardly believe it existed." Luckily for us, it did. Buy this book for your library, yourself, and your students. It's sentimental, inspirational, and informational.— Renee McGrath, Nassau Library System, Uniondale, NY Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Imagination and Innovation is the perfect title for the Weston Woods story, because the company was built on just that. Mort Schindel, the heart and founder of Weston Woods, came from a privileged background in the 1920s. Destined for a career in economics, Schindel was sidelined with tuberculosis. While Schindel was recuperating, his doctor suggested that he pursue a career in art, which led him to film and a whole new world of children’s media. Cech, a writer, critic, and teacher of children’s literature, has the background to write Weston Woods’ story, and he fills the narrative with portraits of authors, artists, and Schindel himself. The picture books that have been filmed with the studio’s iconographic technique (a process by which the cameras create a sense of movement by panning and highlighting details in the book’s original illustrations) are some of the most recognized, including titles such as Make Way for Ducklings and The Man Who Walked between Towers. Cech has included animation cells, archival photographs, storyboards, advertisements, and pictures of mementos of the films as well as a chronology of the company and a filmography. Throughout his career, Schindel and Weston Woods have changed with the times, moving from film to filmstrips to videos to DVDs, and have expanded their business to include a mobile cinema, international productions, and a museum to house all of their artifacts, but throughout it all, they have stuck to their mission of quality and integrity. Cech’s book is a fine tribute to both the company and its founder and will be popular with anyone with a fondness for film or children’s literature. --Candace Smith John Cech is an award-winning author of fiction, prose, poetry, and criticism for adults and children. He is a Professor of English on the faculty at the University of Florida in Gainesville, where he is the director of the international, interdisciplinary Center for Children’s Literature and Culture. Cech is the creator and host of the nationally distributed, public radio program “Recess!” He is the author of a book about Maurice Sendak, ANGELS AND WILD THINGS, and he is the editor of the DICTIONARY OF LITERARY BIOGRAPHY'S AMERICAN WRITERS FOR CHILDREN, 1900-1960. Cech is a frequent contributor of articles, essays, and reviews to such publications as The New York Times Book Review, Washington Post Book World, USA Today, Child, The Horn Book, Children’s Literature, and The Lion and the Unicorn. Cech has also contributed commentaries on children’s culture to National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” He is a past president of the Children’s Literature Association, and currently serves on the advisory boards of the Weston Woods Institute, the Institute for Childhood and Adolescent Research and Evaluation, and the Chicago Children’s Humanities Festival.