Talking About The Children's Book

Culture Vulture: Everyone can benefit from my opinion from Chicago is not a fan of A.S. Byatt but finds the plot engaging though melodramatic. She writes that "she [Byatt] does a fairly admirable job presenting a whole swath of socio-political issues embodied in actual people.

The Children's Book is on Uzma Aslam Khan, the author of The Story of Noble Rot, Trespassing, and The Geometry of God, bucket list of books to read. Her novel, The Geometry of God was voted one of Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2009.

Beth from Southern Bluestocking is rereading The Children's Book because "(a) I’m a little obsessed with Byatt’s work, (b) the period in which it is set is absolutely fascinating (1895-1920), and (c) I just hate feeling like I missed something good." She does suggest when reading this difficult book to make notecards for all the characters, "...you’ll get completely and totally confused if you don’t remember that Charles Wellwood changed his name to Karl after he went to Germany..."

Parnassus Reads gives The Children's Book 4 out of 5 stars writes "this book is really amazing in its historical sweep, but this is also part of its flaw."