After emigrating from Vietnam with his parents as a child, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer and its upcoming sequel The Committed, Viet Thanh Nguyen spent hours immersed at the local public library in rural Pennsylvania, where his family was relocated. "I vividly remember Curious George, Tintin, Encyclopedia Brown and the Hardy Boys," Nguyen recalls. Now, as a father to Ellison, 7, and Simone, 1, Nguyen is revisiting both the classics he remembers from his youth and books he overlooked. "I remember not being attracted to books like Madeline, Babar and Where the Wild Things Are " he says, "whereas I find them more interesting now. Many of these books bear the marks of their time, for good and bad, and I do read some of them with Ellison and try to contextualize them if necessary."  His daughter Simone, meanwhile "can almost say 'book' and has her own library, which she loves to delve into. She picks out favorite books, holds them on her lap, and turns the pages. I’m happy that I’ve developed a culture of reading for them." Though Nguyen is predictably busy as a novelist, the critic-at-large at The Los Angeles Times and a professor of English at the University of Southern California, he makes sure to involve himself in the literary world of his children too. "Although I have a limited interest in the children’s versions of superhero stories that my son loves. But his passion for Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Captain Underpants, The Bad Guys, Hilo, and Dogman have brought those books to me, which I think are great. I wish I had had them when I was a kid. They’re great stories and they don’t come with the racial and colonial baggage of the books I had. I’m looking forward to the young adult world of literature that he’ll expose me to." Below are Viet's favorite books, available to purchase individually or as a set.

Viet Thanh Nguyen'S FAVORITE BOOKS

Actor and director Zoe Lister-Jones grew up in Park Slope, Brooklyn, way before it was the stroller-crammed Subaru utopia of today. The daughter of two artists, Bill Jones and Ardele Lister, Lister-Jones was weened on the irreverent, brilliant and deeply human aesthetic that marks so much of her work as an actor on shows such as Life in Pieces and New Girl to her own writing in films such as Lola Versus and Band-Aid to her latest, a reboot of the classic horror film, The Craft: Legacy, which Lister-Jones wrote and directed and came out on, naturally, Halloween. Drawing on books her mother read to her and books she’s picked up since this list similarly combines deep heart and humor. Below are Zoe Lister-Jones' favorite children's books, available for purchase individually or as a set.

Zoe Lister-Jones'S FAVORITE BOOKS

Misty Copeland, perhaps one of the most iconic ballerinas of all time, didn’t start dancing until she was 13, ancient in ballet terms. Growing up among difficult circumstances in California -- her life story captured in her 2017 memoir Life In Motion -- Copeland didn’t see too many faces like hers among the ranks of the corps de ballet. Nevertheless, she persisted and in 2015 was named the first African-American principal dancer at the American Ballet Theater. “My entire career has been devoted to inclusion, making all people feel welcome in spaces like ballet that hadn't felt open or promising to them in the past,” she says. To that end, in 2020, she turned her story into a children’s book, the New York Times best-selling Bunheads. Along the way, Copeland steeped herself in the world of children’s literature.“Each of these books speaks to the spirit of inclusion and the celebration of diversity, told through the lenses of truly dynamic characters and voices. I hope that as you delve into each book's pages, you'll come away with a renewed appreciation for the humanity in us all." Below are Misty Copeland's favorite children's books, available to purchase individually or as a set.

Misty Copeland'S FAVORITE BOOKS

It’s hard to believe that the actor, comedian and writer Michael Ian Black, a founding member of the mainstay deadpan far-out sketch group The State as well as nearly every other meaningful funny thing in the last thirty years, has reached the advice- and letter-writing stage of his career. But he has. Black’s latest book, A Better Man: A Mostly Serious Letter to My Son, is a meditation on masculinity (and how to avoid its more pernicious forms.) “Traditional masculinity encourages strength, independence, fortitude. All good qualities,” he writes, “At the same time, though, it provides no outlets for our vulnerability. If we cannot allow ourselves vulnerability, how are we supposed to experience wonder, fear, tenderness?” Though the book is framed as a letter to his college-aged son Elijah, Black is also the father of a daughter, Ruth, and though they are both far past the reading to stages, here he remembers those books that brought them together as a family. Below are Michael Ian Black's favorite books for children, available to purchase individually or as a set.    

Michael Ian Black'S FAVORITE BOOKS