The Book Review: Meet the author who created Shrek

May 19, 2026

The book cover of “Shrek!,” by William Steig.

Estate of William Steig

	By Joumana Khatib

Dear readers,

If I have the chance to feature artwork by William Steig in this newsletter I will always, always take it. But I was surprised to learn from this recent story that Steig, the irreverent cartoonist and children’s book author behind “Doctor De Soto,” “Sylvester and the Magic Pebble” and more, was also the creator of “Shrek.” I thought I knew pretty much everything about that chartreuse, omnipresent ogre who, along with Velcro hair jewels and colored ketchup, was knitted into my early-aughts adolescence.

It shouldn’t be a surprise, really. Steig’s work was deceptively elegant and subversive, seeing the possibility for humor and narrative in all sorts of unexpected places. (To anyone who struggled to explain his classics ”CDB!” or “CDC?” to a parent whose first language wasn’t English: I see you.) His book “Shrek!” is undoubtedly a fairy tale — a prince meets his princess — but one that is pimply, fetid and altogether gross. I loved learning that Steig’s editor at first found the story an “aberration.”

See you next time.

In other news

Hayden Panettiere grapples with a decade of upheaval — battling substance abuse and postpartum depression, losing custody of her daughter — in a new memoir out today, “This Is Me.” She talks about the experiences that shaped the book, including several episodes as a young actress encountering the ugliness of Hollywood, in a recent profile.
“Taiwan Travelogue,” by Yang Shuang-zi and translated by Lin King, received the International Booker Prize.

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