The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English | Best Kids' Literature Resource for Parents & Educators | Perfect for Homeschooling, Classroom Reading & Bedtime Stories
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Product Description
The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books is an alphabetized reference work providing a critical and appreciative overview of children's books written in English worldwide. It is not a guide to "children's literature" but has a wider task--to include any author, or illustrator, or work, believed by the editors to have made a significant impact on young readers, or to have in some way influenced the development of children's books. In addition to the long-established traditions of children's writing from Great Britain and the USA, the Guide covers the increasing range of successful children's books produced in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, West Africa, and India; and the exciting renaissance in children's books currently taking place in Ireland and South Africa. Reflecting the developing scholarly appreciation for the history of children's books, The Guide gives due weight to children's books from pre-Norman times, and acknowledges recent developments in publishing practices and in children's own reading. Victor Watson is Assistant Director of Research, Homerton College, University of Cambridge. He has edited several volumes about children's literature, including Opening the Nursery Door (Routledge, 1997) and Where Texts and Children Meet (Routledge, 2000).
Customer Reviews
I bought this book just before Christmas hoping to learn a little about a English illustrator and children's book writer called Gladys Peto, whose work I collect in a small way. She escaped Mr. Watson's detection or didn't make the cut. I next checked on another personal favorite, illustrator Margaret Evans Price. Again, among the missing. I turned to the article on Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House Books", and was put off by the spelenetic tone and politically correct pretensions I found there, e.g.: "These are mostly moral tales for children but they also establish a clear picture of male dominance." The cold hand (heart?) of academe governs this book. (It must be hard to be the children's lit. guy at the Faculty Club where Stephen Hawking and his ilk have lunch...)That said, I have enjoyed reading this book and learned much that I did not know. My little collecting activities have been better informed and I have made frequent use of the book as a reference tool. It has helped and will help me make informed choices of good books for my two small children, which was the other thing I was hoping for when I laid out my...
