The Cartoonist Liana Finck Picks Three Favorite Children’s Books

Summary

The New Yorker Radio Hour

Episode: The Cartoonist Liana Finck Picks Three Favorite Children’s Books
Host: David Remnick
Guest: Liana Finck, New Yorker cartoonist and author
Date: September 23, 2025

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Overview

This episode explores the artistry and influence of children's books through the perspective of New Yorker cartoonist Liana Finck. Host David Remnick and Finck discuss the unique qualities that make children’s books special, the overlap between cartoons for adults and children, and the enduring magic of illustration. Finck shares her three favorite children’s books, reflecting on their personal and artistic impact.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Thematic Power of Children’s Books

• Artistic Roots and Emotional Impact:
  • Liana discusses how children's books were her first experience of art and foundational for her career (03:15).
  • "They're really why I do what I do. I loved them. I think I stopped loving them when it stopped being socially appropriate." – Liana Finck [03:19]
• Children’s Books vs. Cartoons for Adults:
  • Remnick and Finck explore the overlap between whimsical, direct forms of storytelling in both genres (02:06).
  • "I would compare them to fairy tales. Like they're right." – Liana Finck [02:06]
• Changing Nature of the Genre:
  • Finck observes contemporary children's books are "more sophisticated, and in other ways they're less weird. And that's a little bit sad." (02:36)

Book 1: C D B! by William Steig

• Book Structure and Appeal:
  • C D B! is a puzzle-based children’s book where phrases are represented only by letters (04:14).
  • "The phrase 'see the bee' is written as the letters C, D, and B." – Liana Finck [04:22]
• Steig’s Illustrative Style:
  • Praise for Steig’s "anarchic, super emotional, super simple drawings" and refusal to "talk down to children." (04:31, 06:07)
  • Example: "He doesn't talk down to children. ...So 'envy' probably isn't a word you would normally see in a children's book. And he's boiling it down to make it so essential." – Liana Finck [05:48]

Book 2: What Pete Ate from A–Z by Maira Kalman

• Personal Connection and Influence:
  • Kalman was an influence since Finck's childhood. The first kids' book that deeply inspired her was Kalman’s Sayonara, Mrs. Kackleman (06:18).
  • "I think Myra Kellman might be my favorite kids book author and illustrator." – Liana Finck [06:28]
• Internship Experience:
  • Finck interned for Kalman as a teen: "She had me organize her moss collection and walk Pete." (07:18)

Book 3: Tell Me a Mitzi by Lore Segal, illustrated by Harriet Pincus

• Narrative Structure and Illustration:
  • Book features stories told by parents to a child, centered on the titular Mitzi in mid-century New York (11:21).
  • Finck admires Segal’s storytelling approach: "She wrote...a little bit tedious. There’s a ton of tedious detail, and I think it’s really soothing for kids." (13:24)
• Emotional Resonance:
  • Pincus’s illustrations are "so appealing and so delicious. ...when we look at pictures, it brings us back to exactly who we were when we were kids, which is magic." – Liana Finck [13:52]

Reflection: Endurance of Cartoons and Drawing

• On the Future of Cartoons:
  • Remnick asks if cartoons will survive digital change (14:08). Finck disagrees with the idea that only some people should draw, likening drawing’s universality to music (14:25).
  • "I think it's very similar to music. It's just like something that comes out of us." – Liana Finck [14:38]

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• "Kids books were my first experience of art. They're really why I do what I do." – Liana Finck [03:15]
• "He doesn't talk down to children. He uses big words, he talks about complex things." – Liana Finck on William Steig [05:44]
• "I think myra kellman might be my favorite kids book author and illustrator." – Liana Finck [06:28]
• "She had me organize her moss collection and walk Pete." – Liana Finck on being Maira Kalman’s intern [07:18]
• "When we look at pictures, it brings us back to exactly who we were when we were kids, which is magic." – Liana Finck [13:52]
• "Everyone's different. I should draw, but I'm kind of changing my mind. I think it's, like, so essential. I think it's very similar to music." – Liana Finck [14:32]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 01:05 – Introduction to Liana Finck and overview of her career
• 02:06 – Discussion: Cartoons for adults vs. children’s books
• 03:15 – How motherhood and art intersect for Finck
• 04:14 – Book 1: William Steig's C D B!
• 06:18 – Book 2: Maira Kalman’s What Pete Ate from A–Z; intern anecdote
• 11:21 – Book 3: Tell Me a Mitzi by Lore Segal and Harriet Pincus
• 14:08 – Reflection: Will cartoons last forever?

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Conclusion

Through humor, nostalgia, and insight, Liana Finck and David Remnick showcase the artistry of children’s books and their continued significance for both readers and creators. Finck’s selections highlight works that are inventive, emotionally resonant, and deeply influential, suggesting that children’s literature never loses its magic—regardless of age.

Transcript

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[David Remnick]

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. Leanna Fink is a cartoonist who contributes to the New Yorker. She's also the author of the graphic memoir Passing for Human and other Books. Her work has a quality of being somehow whimsical and at the same time kind of profound. And like many of her great forebearers at the magazine, she's also done children's books. Earlier this year, Liana published a book called Mixed Feelings that explores, well, just that, the ways that our emotions sometimes confuse us. And that's something that happens if you're 4 or you're 64. I asked Liana Fink to join me and talk about some of the illustrators who have inspired her over time. Liana, you've been contributing amazing work, amazing cartoons to the magazine for a decade now, which seems hard to believe. And you've published children's books of your own. What's the overlap between cartoons for adults and children's books, if any?

[Leanna Fink]

I think the children's book as we know it was kind of invented by an editor at Harper and Row named Ursula Nordstrom. She published E.B. white. These books just kind of like get to the heart of things. I would compare them to fairy tales. Like they're right.

[David Remnick]

Children's books are very often like fables. I think we could say that that's the root of children's books is Aesop's Fables or things like that. They had a moral lesson. Is that still the case in books that you're reading with your kids?

[Leanna Fink]

More so, yeah, more, I would say, more lesson. And we're a Lot savvier about, like, psychology now. So in some ways the books are a lot more sophisticated, and in other ways they're less weird. And that's a little bit sad.

[David Remnick]

I think maybe the first Pat the Bunny and Goodnight Moon is the book I think I've read most in my life.

[Leanna Fink]

Yeah, it's perfect.

[David Remnick]

I think it's possible that I've read that thousands of times to various kids of mine. How has becoming a mother changed your relationship to what you think makes a good kids book?

[Leanna Fink]

It has brought me back to the root of, like, why I love art. Kids books were my first experience of art. They're really why I do what I do. I loved them. I think I stopped loving them when it stopped being socially appropriate. But, like, it's weird when you're a drawing person to stop looking at kids books. Cause that's the main, like, one of the real venues for people to draw stories. And that's what I do. It's really different from fine art and painting and sculpture and stuff. So it's given me an excuse to get back to basics. And I'm also watching my kid and watching what he likes. And I'm realizing it's so much simpler than, like, what I try to do as an artist. I'm, like, always trying to go for, like, the real reach.

[David Remnick]

Well, walk us through your selections. My understanding is that your first is by William Stig, who I even knew a little bit when I started as editor. So tell me about the William Steig book that you brought.

[Leanna Fink]

I think it's one of the first ones he published. It's also kind of a deep cut. I was really debating bringing Sylvester and the Magic pebble, which is probably the first William Steig book I would recommend. But I'm assuming you've all read it. So I brought one called cdb that's kind of a little bit for kids and a little bit for grownups. And it's a book written in kind of puzzles where each word is represented by a letter. So he only says things that can be written just as letters. So the phrase see the bee is written as the letters C, D, and B. And then he illustrates them with these kind of anarchic, super emotional, super simple drawings that are not a reach. Like, he always stayed true to, like, the most direct kind of drawing. And I think that's why he made such a good kids book author, which is something he became like, long after he'd been making cartoons for decades.

[David Remnick]

So those came much later.

[Leanna Fink]

Yeah, he was in his late 50s. I think when he started doing these storybooks. And there's another puzzle in the book. It's I envy you. And it's spelled I, the letter N, the letter V, the letter U. And it's a picture of a plaintive looking boy talking to a much more confident, slightly older looking boy who is eating a lollipop. And one nice thing about this book and Stigg's work in general is that he doesn't talk down to children. He uses big words, he talks about complex things. So envy probably isn't a word you would normally see in a children's book. And he's boiling it down to make it so, so simple and so like essential and to be something a child could absolutely relate to.

[David Remnick]

Next up is another Alphabet based book and this one is by another artist that I adore and who's published quite a lot in the New Yorker, Myra Kallman. Tell me about this book.

[Leanna Fink]

So this is called what Pete Ate from A to Z. And and it's autobiographical in that it's about a dog named Pete who is Myra Kellman's dog. I brought this book because I think Myra Kellman might be my favorite kids book author and illustrator. And the first book that I read when I was four when I thought I really like this is my favorite thing in the world and I want to do this was another book by her called Sayanera Mrs. Cackleman. And I think it had come out that year. It was new and it's so punk rock and it's so wild now you.

[David Remnick]

Know or knew Mara Coleman. You were an intern for her?

[Leanna Fink]

Yeah. So I wrote both her and Roz Chast letters when I was like 16 or I think I wrote to Roz first and that began like the most meaningful correspondence in my life. But I wrote to Myra a little bit later and she let me come be her intern.

[David Remnick]

What does an intern for an artist do?

[Leanna Fink]

She had me organize her moss collection and walk Pete.

[David Remnick]

I'm speaking with Liana Fink. More in a moment.

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[David Remnick]

Now here's one that's been around for a while Tell me Mitzi, what do you love about this?

[Leanna Fink]

Yeah, Tell me a Mitzi. The motif in this book is that there's a little girl named Martha living in then modern times and she says to her parents, tell me a Mitzi. And then they tell her a story about a little girl named Mitzi who's growing up, I want to say in the 40s or 50s.

[David Remnick]

And this is a collaboration between Laurie.

[Leanna Fink]

Siegel wrote it and Harriet Pincus illustrated it. Laurie Siegel, Everyone Needs to know as a writer. Writer. She was a child of the Holocaust, born in Vienna, I think.

[David Remnick]

And Laurie Siegel wrote for the New Yorker pretty frequently and died within the last year or so.

[Leanna Fink]

A year ago in October, Yeah. And here's a little bit from the first story in Tell Me a Mitzi that I really like. The doorman helped Mitzi take the stroller down the steps and and Mitzi pushed Jacob to the corner of the street and called taxi. A taxi stopped and the driver got out and came around to their side. He lifted Jacob out of the stroller and put him in the back seat and lifted Mitzi in and folded up the stroller and put it in the empty front seat and walked around to his side and got in and said where to Grandma and Grandpa's house please, said Mitzi. Where do they live? Asked the driver. I don't know, said Mitzi. So the driver got out and came around to the other side and took the stroller from the front seat and unfolded it on the sidewalk and took Jacob out and put him in the stroller and took Mitzi out and put her on the sidewalk and walked around to his side and got in and Drove away. So on the first page, the words are next to a full page image of Mitzi walking out of her building, and she's pushing this stroller, and she's passing all these kids playing on the street, and she's wearing this iconic snowsuit with purple with orange stars on it that I remember so well from when I was a kid. And everything's just so, like a little cabbage batch doll. Ugly and also just so appealing and so delicious. And I think Laurie Siegel is really wise. She was a mother, and I think she knew that words are just, like, comforting to kids. And she wrote. I think she intentionally made this story a little bit tedious. There's a ton of tedious detail, and I think it's really soothing for kids. But I still love these pictures a lot. And as an adult, the things I love in these illustrations are the same things I loved as a kid. And that's so interesting. Like, I think when we look at pictures, it brings us back to exactly who we were when we were kids, which is magic.

[David Remnick]

Do you think cartoons, which began in satirical magazines and probably on cave walls, will last forever? Or is it a form that's challenged by the winnowing of magazines and the gigantic growth of the Internet?

[Leanna Fink]

Mm. It's gonna last forever. Even if we're doing it secretly, I think it goes so deep, it's interesting. Like, people like in the inspirational moment that we were in recently, maybe still are. I don't know. People would be like, why should everyone draw? Like, that's a question I would get asked and I'd be like, not everyone should draw. That's ridiculous. Everyone's different. I should draw, but I'm kind of changing my mind. I think it's, like, so essential. I think it's very similar to music. It's just like something that comes out of us.

[David Remnick]

Liana Fink, thank you so much.

[Leanna Fink]

Thanks for having me.

[David Remnick]

Leanna Fink's illustrated books include Mixed Feelings and Questions Without Answers. You can find some of her [e-mail] and you can subscribe to the New Yorker there as well. New Yorker. I'm David Remnick and thanks for joining us today. See you next time.

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