A child growing up in early eighteenth-century England had few reading options: preachy poems, stark rulebooks, and religious texts that made them fear that death was near. Fortunately for more recent generations of young readers, a London publisher and printer named John Newbery thought that these choices were Balderdash! (Chronicle, $17.99). Michelle Markel’s alliterative text exuberantly portrays the story of how Newbery set out to publish books that were delightful as well as instructional. Whimsical illustrations by Nancy Carpenter augment this energetic biography of the father of children’s literature and namesake of the American Library Association’s annual award for “the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.”