Book Description

Who are today's must-know children's authors and illustrators? McElmeel's ready reference introduces you to some of the hottest new names in children's literature, and reacquaints you with established authors and illustrators who are just now becoming recognized for their contributions to the field. You'll find engaging biographical sketches, photos, selected bibliographies, and lists of resources for 45 authors and illustrators, including Laurie Halse Anderson, Haemi Balgassi, Toni Buzzeo, David Diaz, Kate DiCamillo, Linda Sue Park, Chris Soentpiet, Anastasia Suen, Simms Taback, and many more. This all-new new volume is a current and affordable update to the Popular Authors Series. Students will enjoy using it as a resource for reports and research papers, and librarians will find it a handy reference and collection development tool. A great addition to the elementary school library and to the children's room at the public library. Grades K-6 ... Read more

Amazon.com

Imagine hundreds and hundreds of books just for you! For African American girls, this dream can come true with Black Books Galore! Authors Donna Rand and Toni Trent Parker, founders of the nation's leading organizer of African American children's book festivals, have created an invaluable resource and companion to Black Books Galore! Guide to Great African American Children's Books About Boys. The girls' version spotlights 360 books for girls from birth through eighth grade, featuring African American heroines such as the granddaughter in No Mirrors in My Nana's House and high-spirited Charlene (a.k.a. Charlie) in Maniac Monkeys on Magnolia Street.

Selections are arranged alphabetically by title and numbered sequentially for easy cross-referencing. Each entry includes title, subtitle, author, illustrator, publisher of hardcover and paperback editions, original publication date, and a brief, lively synopsis of the book. Significant awards are noted, as well as any sequels, prequels, companions, or series titles. Book descriptions often include text excerpts and pictures of book covers to impart the flavor of the books. Special features, such as "The Creator's Reflections," spotlight talented authors and illustrators like Patricia C. McKissack and Jerry Pinkney, as well as well-known African American personages and even young readers.--Emilie Coulter ... Read more

Amazon.com

The authors of Growing Up with Dick and Jane do themselves one better in this beautifully packaged and exhaustively researched volume. While Dick and Jane is loads of fun, it is a bit light on text; this book tells you everything you wanted to know about your favorite white-bread detectives. The story of their creation in the mind of Edward Stratemeyer, the way they were fleshed out by his stable of writers, and their transformation in the light of a changing America are all told, with tons of asides on their influences, effects, and environment. Kismaric and Heiferman use the teen detectives as a lens through which to view the invention of adolescence in the 20th century, but they never become dry or pedantic. The lushly illustrated, large-format book is as beautiful to hold and look at as it is engaging to read. --James DiGiovanna ... Read more

Reviews (12)

The Stratemeyer Syndicate sleuths get their day.
This book is fun to look at. Dozens of photos, large and small, pay tribute to the most popular series characters in English-language fiction. As a child I used to stand in front of rows of these books in bookstores, poring over the covers, for hours at a time. The covers have a talismanic quality this book neatly captures. Interior line drawings (including the "frontispiece" illustrations in each book) also appear throughout this large-format book. Unfortunately none of the Drew/Hardy pictures are labelled, so unless you know the originals you can't pair them to the book. The potted history of the Stratemeyer syndicate is clearly if breezily presented, with excerpts from letters indicating the tensions behind the scenes between publishers and Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, who assumed control of the empire after her father died in 1930, just as the Drew series was about to start (three years after the Hardy series had taken off). The authors document almost nothing, though, so you can't easily use the book for research purposes. Still, these authors condescend to the series characters far less than most academic writers have -- it's nice to read complimentary things about the power of the books on kids who have literally read them to pieces over the decades. The main problem with this book is that it goes far afield to encompass a general social history of the last century. We get inset mini-essays on adolescence, "model dads" (from FDR to MLK), juvenile delinquents, "Seventeen" magazine, the influence of TV, etc. The inset coverage is superficial, reading like canned newsmagazine features. Anyone who picks up the book to read about Drew/Hardy is unlikely to care about this material. Fortunately, there is still plenty about Drew/Hardy, with generous quotes from both the original books and updated rewrites of the Grosset and Dunlap series. The authors treat each series as one long book, looking for trends in plots and characterizations -- Nancy is "locked in closets, attics, gymnasiums, cisterns, caves, and submarines," they note. They're also good on the media and pop culture variations of the characters, from Disney TV adaptations to board games. The paperback watering-down of the characters in the 1980s gets softer treatment than it deserves, since this book's publisher (Simon and Schuster) owns the Stratemeyer Syndicate now and published them. The book is worth seeing, as long as readers knowit lacks full focus on Drew/Hardy, and often doesn't reveal its sources.

the evolution of two popular children's series
"The Mysterious Case of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys" takes the reader back to the origin of the Hardy Boys Mystery Series and the Nancy Drew books. While the two series have Franklin W Dixon and Carolyn Keene listed as the authors, neither author actually exists are a person. They are both creations of the Stratemeyer Syndicate. The Stratemeyer Syndicate was the "writing factory" started by Edward Stratemeyer as a means to churn out book after book in a series that he conceived of. He would contract an author to write a book with the requirement the author sign away all rights to the book and to remain anonymous. This led to the birth of Franklin W Dixon and Carolyn Keene (as well as the Tom Swift series, among others).

This book is the history and evolution of these two iconic series for children. The reader is shown how society has influenced the content of the novels, both in the language used as well as the plots. When the Hardy Boys first began in the late 1920's and into the 30's, there early volumes contained numerous racial stereotypes, both among the bad guys as well as the Hardys' friends. Later editions would edit these stereotypes out. This book follows the series through their various authors as well as the change in the focus of the Syndicate after the death of Edward Stratemeyer.

One thing that the authors of this book try to do is tie both series into the society of the time (whether it is the 1930's of the early series, the 1950's or the 1980's). This attempt is what I found less successful or interesting about the book. There are numerous sidebars and pictures and captions about the America's youth during each era and how the books impacted the youth and I felt that this information was extraneous and unnecessary.

What is most interesting about this book is the evolution of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. The characters changed over the 75 years and the books continue to sell. This coverage was the best part of the book and is what I would recommend for the reader. Nothing would be lost by just skipping the sidebars. I do feel that the authors have overstated the influence of these characters, but I cannot question the popularity of the Hardys or Nancy Drew.(...)

Great photos, text could be better
GREAT info for the Nancy Drew lover. This would get 5 stars for the inclusion of photos from the books alone. The writing could have been more detailed and written a bit better. I DID like that the authors included information from the period during which the NDs were written -- the '30s through today -- and how teens were changing over the years. Nancy Drew changed and grew along with today's teens, although die-hard fans wish the syndicate hadn't changed a WORD.

I was a little disappointed with the reading of the book, but had just finished "The Nancy Drew Scrapbook" which is AWESOME, so that might be why I was expecting more from this book. I LOVED all the photos, tho, lots of nostalgia!

Great pictures, great research!
This descriptive book shows great book photos from the '30s and later and describes what life was like back then! It describes TV shows of the time, and how Nancy Drew sparked interest in female sleuths like Jessica Fletcher of Murder She Wrote! Teens of the time are described, and how Nancy Drew became an important positive role model for all young women. Hat off to the authors!

Fascinating social commentary a must-read for Hardy Boys fan
This beautifully packaged, colourful, but thin paperback unearths the long history of the Stratemeyer Syndicate's greatest heroes, the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. Blown-up covers from both series liven up the book, triggering memories of adrenaline surging through the veins of teenagers everywhere.

The material on how the books changed over the years -- especially the evolution of racial stereotypes of "Negroes," Jews, and Italians -- is truly fascinating. I never realized that the books I read in the seventies had been homogenized by a factory of authors. I now want to read the original books, if I can find them (eBay here I come!).

I could do without most of the overlong and annoying sidebars. Again and again they fill us in on how teens have changed over the last century, but seldom are the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew even mentioned in them!

I give this book an "A" for the terrific images and accurate and enlightening history, but overall, marred by some poor editorial decisions, the book deserves a "B." Still, this is required reading for those interested in pop culture and the literature of our youth. Now I'm off to solve the Secret of the Caves . . . ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (3)

Critisism
In this book the author is trying to make a statement about the Harry Potter books and telling her negative view of the book to other people. She taking her own interpretation of the book and presenting it as fact. I give her all my respects, but try reading the books through a child's eyes, with an open mind. I quite enjoyed these books for there magical and whimsical qualities. And I think that no child should be denied the opportunity to read these books, just because their parents read this particular book and already formed a negative view in their head based on the author's interpretation of the book.

Uninsightful vamping
The other reviewer is spot on, this is a dreary trudge through every fashionable tourist-spot of contemporary criticism. It barely engages with the actual books, pausing at the actual experience of reading only long enough to spot the landmark heresies: sexism (check), racism (check), imperialism (check)... flip through the index and compare the references to characters in the books, vs. the references to vogue theorists, and you'll get the idea. As expected, there is considerably more space made for academic squabbles than for any recognizable experience, human or literary. The inquisitor wraps up this excericize in scholasticism with the shocking announcement that Rowling has been discovered to be (gasp!) a bourgouise liberal. Light the pyres!

A witch-hunt indeed. Yuck.

Missing the point?
I did enjoy parts of this book very much. I'm afraid, though, that it was often for the wrong reasons. At times I suspected that it was an elaborate and extended send-up of academic squabbling over literature. I'm still not quite sure, but I *think* it is serious.

The first chapter 'Book Covers' ("I begin as most readers must, with book covers") contains the delightful story of Wolfgang Iser and Stanley Fish. Mr Iser proposes an "implied reader" who has a dialectical relationship with the text and who, we are warned, "is not to be identified with any real reader." This concept gives rise to "a series of disagreements." Mr Fish thinks that Mr Iser is "missing the point" and introduces the concept of "interpretive strategies" which make it "questionable whether a particular text can be said to have any discrete and determinative existence at all." Gupta, in a tongue twisting turn of phrase, comments that, "A waspish exchange followed between Iser and Fish." Some unkind people may consider that both Iser and Fish, and possibly also Gupta, have missed the point.

The chapter entitled 'Religious Perspectives' comes to the remarkable conclusion that Christian belief (as he understands it from a study of Richard Abanes book) is just as fanciful as anything in Harry Potter's world, and that both are equally far removed from the real world of the social and political. This gives us an insight into Mr Gupta's world view but, sadly, none into his subject. Perhaps this is because he fails to refer directly to the text under discussion at all in this chapter, but devotes it to a complaint that he feels excluded from the religious debate because he is not religious.

The one chapter that stands head and shoulders above the rest is the one entitled 'Repetition and Progression'. This chapter is based around the insight that the books in the Harry Potter series achieve a rare balance of repeating themes and increasing complexity. It notes how the initial themes are introduced, then elaborated, developed and deepened at each repetition. This is an intriguing chapter and does not seem to fit comfortably with the rest of the book. It is also very brief -only four pages. I would have found it interesting to see this explored in more depth.

For a very much more perceptive and thorough, although less self-consciously academic, analysis of both the literary and religious perspectives I would highly recommend John Granger's book The Hidden Key to Harry Potter. ... Read more

Book Description

Based on the author's day-to-day experience as a school librarian and storyteller, More Books Kids Will Sit Still For offers 1,400 of the most engaging hand-picked titles guaranteed to keeps kids on the edge of their seats. From picture books and fiction, folk and fairy tales to poetry, biography, and nonfiction, each annotated entry provides a brief plot summary, curriculum tie-ins, related titles, and subject designations. ... Read more

Book Description

A basic textbook on the classifications and uses of children's literature in the elementary school. For pre-service teachers and undergraduate students in elementary education. ... Read more

Book Description

The fairy tales collected by the brothers Grimm are among the best known and most widely-read stories in western literature. In recent years commentators such as Bruno Bettelheim have, usually from a psychological perspective, pondered the underlying meaning of the stories, why children are so enthralled by them, and what effect they have on the developing child. In this book, Ronald Murphy takes five of the best-known tales ("Hansel and Gretel," "Little Red Riding Hood," "Cinderella," "Snow White," and "Sleeping Beauty") and shows that the Grimms saw them as Christian fables. Murphy examines the arguments of previous interpreters of the tales, and demonstrates how they missed the Grimms' intention. His own readings of the five so-called "magical" tales reveal them as the beautiful and inspiring "documents of faith" that the Grimms meant them to be. Offering an entirely new perspective on these often-analyzed tales, Murphy's book will appeal to those concerned with the moral and religious education of children, to students and scholars of folk literature and children's literature, and to the many general readers who are captivated by fairy tales and their meanings. ... Read more

Book Description

In their imaginations, children travel the world when they read such books as Madeline, A Bear Called Paddington, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and Little House on the Prairie. Make these imaginary journeys a reality for your children with visits to the actual settings of these and dozens more of the best-loved tales in children’s literature. Storybook Travels is the ultimate guide for book-loving parents in search of vacations the whole family will enjoy. Let Storybook Travels be your family’s companion on unforgettable excursions, including:

A magical walk through London looking for the mysterious spots young Harry frequents in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

A fun-filled visit to the Plaza Hotel in New York City, reliving the charmed existence of Eloise

A busy day in the tiny Tuscan village of Collodi, watching a puppet show, exploring a hedge maze, and enjoying other activities in homage to The Adventures of Pinocchio

A scenic trek following the same trail created by Brighty the Burro, a real-life hero whose story is told in Brighty of the Grand Canyon

A wonderful sojourn in Paris and surrounding areas, visiting museums, eating at typical French cafés, and spotting the famous water lilies at Monet’s home in Giverny, all celebrated in Linnea in Monet’s Garden

An afternoon of barbecue and music at the Chicago Blues Festival, in the imaginary company of Yolonda and her harmonica-playing little brother, the stars of Yolonda’s Genius

With itineraries for more than thirty locales in North America and Europe, Storybook Travels explores destinations near and far, rural and urban. Whether you want to plan a trip that will mean as much to you as it will to your children (or grandchildren), are looking for ways to enrich already-planned trips, or want to bring to life the fondly remembered books of your own childhood, Storybook Travels is your guide to one enchanting journey after another. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Thank you
Thanks to authors Bates and Latempa for their delightful and intelligent approach to traveling with kids. We have used books such as Linnea in Monet's Garden, Eloise in Paris, and the Madeleine books in our travels to Paris, but what's impressive about this book is the way the authors have drawn on so many other children's classics as a backdrop for family travel. I write about family travel myself and highly recommend this book --it's a good read whether you are packing to go, or just happy as an armchair traveler.

An inspiration
This book is a great jumping-off point for family vacations in the US or abroad. It will inspire you to travel AND read with your family!

fabulous guide to family literary travel
Thirty international locales from books aimed at 3- to 13-year olds are described. Each descriptive chapter includes a few sentences summarizing the overarching experience (with location and age information); a one to two page summary of the book; several pages relating an actual visit by an adult(s) and child(ren); and, one to several pages detailing the specific location(s) involved, including names, addresses, phone numbers and web sites. Also included are a list of twenty-five other literary travel possibilities, including Call of the Wild and Peter Pan, and an index to titles.

The books and sites included are:

The Adventures of Pinocchio, Tuscany, Italy
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hannibal, Missouri and environs
And Now Miguel, Taos, New Mexico
Anne of Green Gables, Prince Edward Island, Canada
A Bear Called Paddington, London, England
The Black Stallion, Belmont Park, Long Island, New York
Brighty of the Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

Child of the Owl, San Francisco, California
Eloise, New York City, New York
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York
Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates, Haarlem Amsterdam and environs
Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, London, Windsor and Durham, England
Heidi, Graubunden, Switzerland
Hill of Fire, Paracutin Volcano, Michoacan, Mexico
Island of the Blue Dolphins, Channel Islands National Park, Ventura, California

Kidnapped, Isle of Mull, Scotland
Linnea in Monet's Garden, Paris and Giverny, France
Little House on the Prairie, De Smet, South Dakota
The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge, New York City
Little Women, Concord, Massachusetts
Madeline, Paris, France
Make Way for Ducklings, Boston, Massachusetts
Maybelle the Cable Car, San Francisco, California
Paddle-to-the-Sea, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Hamelin, Germany
Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Portland, Oregon
Song of the Swallows, San Juan Capistrano, California
The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Lake District, England
The Watsons Go to Birmingham -- 1963, Birmingham, Alabama
Yolonda's Genius, Chicago, Illinois

You can tell moms wrote this book. It's entertaining AND practical. The material is fascinating, well written, and tells you everything you could want to know (except maybe where the bathrooms are located). The contact information makes this an invaluable resource. I hope the authors will continue to write more of these wonderful family travel guides.

Highest recommendation.

GRANDPARENT OF 10
MY GRANDCHILDREN ARE JUST GETTING OLD ENOUGH TO TRAVEL, AND THIS BOOK GIVES ME A GUIDE TO MANY CHOICES OF WHERE WE CAN TAKE THEM (A FEW AT A TIME!) IT'S GREAT TO HAVE A PROJECT WHEN PLANNING A TRIP, AND IT WILL GIVE ME A SOURCE OF CONVERSATION WITH THEM AND A WAY OF DISCOVERING WHAT BOOKS THEY REALLY ENJOY. READING SOME OF THESE SUGGESTED BOOKS WITH THEM AND MAKING JOINT DECISIONS WILL ALSO BE FUN--THE BOOK IS SO WELL WRITTEN AND INFORMATIVE IT MAKES THE IDEA OF SEEKING OUT LOCATIONS OF BOOKS WHICH HAVE SET OUR IMAGINATIONS SOARING IN OUR CHILDHOODS, AND THEIRS, VERY SPECIAL. THE ITINERARIES ARE ALL THERE, AND TOURIST OFFICES,WEB SITES, RESERVATION NUMBERS---AND IT'S HONEST--NO FLOWERY DISCRIPTIONS OF EVERY LOCATION--I LOVED IT!!!!!!

A book for all parents, grandparents and kids
"Storybook Travels" is an easy read; so well written and interesting. Each chapter is devoted to a children's classic and related locale; easy reference when checking out books to read and travel destination possibilities.

Every parent and grandparent should have this book for ready reference. Traveling ideas and tips for traveling with children are invaluable. And for many, the identified books will help them know what their children should be reading.

Children's librarians and teachers should also have this book on their reference shelf. Children's storytime tellers could use this book to augment their presentation of these classics. Real world experiences help the young reader relate to the written word.

Hopefully, these authors will continue their travels to acquaint us with today's locations of more children's books, young adult and adult books. Traveling can only be enhanced if one can match the real world with the literary world. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Helpful Perspective on Folk and Legendary Tales for Children
This book will touch on deep and meaningful experiences that you have had while reading as a child and reading to children. By reading those perspectives organized into a series of short essays, you will better be able to read and enjoy the classic tales and bring the most meaning to them for yourself and others. Although I spend a great deal of time thinking about children's literature, this book greatly extended by ability to conceptualize the context for benefiting from these stories.

Ms. Yolen begins strongly by pointing out many of the most important distinctions between oral and written literature. Most of our classic children's stories began in the former, and have been migrating into the latter. The story teller plays a great role in the oral tradition, by adjusting the way the story is told to fit the audience. As parents, I think we all do this instinctively with young children, but gradually abdicate that role as the children learn to read silently to themselves. As story tellers, we can help point out the interesting and challenging parts of the stories. In so doing, we increase the likelihood that the child will learn more about what it means to be human.

Many people are concerned because classic folk tales, like Little Red Riding Hood, have many layers of meaning and can be interpreted in some pretty fightening ways. Ms. Yolen cites research showing that children actually like the punishments to be extreme in such stories, as a reflection of their sense of justice. But when should we be able to treat the outsider harshly? Stories like Rumplestiltskin nicely raise that issue. Whenever I review children's books, I try to point out these opportunities for exploring moral issues. One of the strengths of the folk tales is that they are full of moral issues, and questions of choice. For example, even when you take on the powers of magic, there is often a price to be paid.

At another level, these stories capture parts of ourselves. By focusing in an imaginary world, they allow us to concentrate on that little sliver of ourselves. For example, anyone reading Peter Pan will remember sometimes feeling like Wendy and wanting to grow up, and sometimes feeling like Peter Pan and never wanting to grow up. By being poised with a choice on that ambivalence, a person can make a more successful determination about growing up and in what ways. No child would sit still for such a discussion without Barrie's powerful story.

I was also impressed by the argument that we have many concepts that adults do not usually discuss in public company, like death, good, evil, God, and love. The folk and fairy tales are full of such subjects, and the "disbelief" that we suspend helps make us comfortable with dealing in these semi-taboo subjects.

One of the best arguments in the essays is that by going through Alice's Looking Glass these stories must be very true about human nature, or we will reject them. They will simply be too remote and disconnected otherwise. So the more absurd the setting, the higher the potential for touching the universal.

Naturally, there are things that are regrettable in these stories . . . but there are things that are regrettable in life. Moral conversation and discussion will always benefit from an early beginning in life. How will your children find out what you believe, if you do not use stories of all sorts as one context for explaining your ideas and experiences?

I also agree with the praise here for the time travel books that allow us to more realistically consider earlier times. Now that people study so much less history, there is an increasing tendency to assume the past was much like the present. That has never been less true than now, as our knowledge and technology advance so rapidly.

Perhaps the most persuasive argument of all is that these stories give us common metaphors for communicating with one another. In the absence of the Cinderella story, how can children deal with their universal secret suspicion that they were really born to royalty . . . not their own parents . . . and are fated for a great destiny? Having read many versions of Cinderella, as well as having seen the Walt Disney movie, I as shocked when I realized how impoverished this story would be if you had only seen the Walt Disney version. Then, having been shocked, I also remembered thinking how weak I thought the Walt Disney version was the first time I saw it as a youngster. That took me back to an age of consciousness where I had not been for many years. I was grateful for the experience.

After you finish reading this book and considering its many important messages, I suggest that you also read The Golden Bough, which looks at legends and folklore around the world over time. From that perspective, you will begin to appreciate how common our yearnings and intrepretations are of common life issues and circumstances. It makes me feel closer to every other person when that thought resonates throughout my body while reading that outstanding book, like the reverbrations from an enhanting chanson performed by a troubador's medieval song and lute.

May you touch others, and yourself, better through the most universal human stories from the oral tradition! Also, read aloud daily to your children and grandchildren. If you cannot be with them, you can still do this by telephone.

Compelling insight into the need for story and fantasy
Jane Yolen offers strong reasons for the absolute need children have for stories and fairy tales, in their glory as well as their gore. In brilliant, almost poetic prose, she lends perspective and personal insight into the food for our souls these stories provide. She shares a particularly powerful example from her own childhood, a book by E. Nesbit, THE POWER OF THE AMULET. As a Jewish child in New York City, reading this book in about 1946, she was completely drawn into the fantasy world created. Only as a young adult, upon re-reading years later, did she confront the anti-Semitic bias in the story. Her point is well-taken, that those themes that an adult considers "ugly," are not what a child who lives in fantasy will take from a story.

Her other essays face head-on the objections that many have to the old tales, and she champions them in their original form. In the wake of the uproar created by the Harry Potter books, her essays are well worth considering. We are, as she says, in danger of denying our children their own humanity when we brush aside the many gems of folk and fairy lore.

An expanded edition of a great book
Yolen offers a strong collection of essays on children, stories, fantasy, and folklore in this new edition of Touch Magic. Yolen is one of the greatest forces in children's literature and folklore today. She explores the reasons why fantasy and folklore literature is important for children to read and hear. The power of story in individuals and in our cultures is emphasized in each essay. Yolen explains that stories link us to our past and future, helping all of us understand who we are and improve our interaction with the world. For anyone who wants to understand or explain why fantasy and folklore is important for children and adults, this book is a must read.

A must have for anyone who tells or reads stories
This book is an absolute must have for anyone concerned with literature and the way we pass on culture to our children. These essays, first published in 1981 (except for the last six, which have been added to this expanded edition) all deal with the importance of fairy tales and folktales to today's society: the way they teach morals, give us a platform to view the world, show us bravery and loyalty and love. As Yolen says, "... without tales and stories and books is to lose humanity's past, is to have no star map for the future." Never before have I heard the case for folk literature's preservation so succintly, so vividly, and so earnestly. Yolen deserves heaps of awards for this gem of a book. Highly, highly, highly recommended!

Thoughtful essays
Yolen and August House share a newly expanded version of this wonderful book including six new essays. In the book, Yolen offers her insights into children's literature, fairy tales, folklore, and storytelling. Her book is a must-read for anyone who loves stories, children, and folklore. Many children today never hear fairy tales beyond the cinematic offerings of Disney. Yolen explains why children (and adults) need to hear these stories to increase their understanding of themselves and their world. ... Read more

Book Description

Explores why women abolitionists turned to children's literature to make their case against slavery. ... Read more

Book Description

This book gathers together a number of popular folktale reworkings (not just simple retellings) in a variety of genres that appeal to young adults. After discussing the nature of folktales, their cultural context, and the characteristics that make them attractive to young adults, de Vos and Altmann interpret specific tales and offer suggestions for using the material. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

May have some value as a bibliography
This long book summarizes folktale scholarship and provides an annotated bibliography of books and films (both children's and adult) based on folktales. The authors are unfortunately not up to the task, and their book reads like a first draft or a compilation of undergraduate work. Attempts to explain folklore theories are clumsy and confusing.

Great resource for teachers and librarians
I have been looking for a great resource for school teachers and librarians teaching folklore and fairy tales to students. I think I finally found it. While much of the information in this book is not new, it has been conveniently gathered from several sources to help teachers find the information they need when teaching units in this area of their curriculum. Fairy tales offer many avenues of study in the classroom and this book will simplify writing lesson plans. Ways to think about the tales are presented as well as interpretations to use for different applications.

For anyone else who is interested in folklore, this is a wonderful resource for jumping off your studies. I learned new things and remembered other things I had forgotten! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Touring The Old Neighborhood
Reading The Girl Sleuth was like getting in a car with a friend at the wheel and going back to the neighborhood where we lived from ages 10 - 12. Together we uncovered the probable reasons why my mother and the school librarian disapproved of Nancy Drew and what those series mysteries did for our self images as women. The overt mainstream racism of the earlier editions of the series books is shocking; it gives me some comfort to think that our culture has grown up in the last few decades to understand how very wrong that thinking was. This book was completed in 1975 when Mason was a young post-doc coming off a Nabokov dissertation. It is relatively free of scholarspeak, though the feminism and Freudian references are starkly of their time. It's not dated, however: Mason writes from the heart as well as the mind and this slim book is a timeless good ride.

Flashbacks and feminism
From Aunt Jane's Girls to Sweet Valley High, series books for girls have been a staple of girls' literary diets. Bobbie Ann Mason (author of "In Country") is one of many who devoured series like The Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew. She looks back at the books with affection and the amused rememberings of adulthood, but also acknowledges some of the faults of the book - especially in matters of racism, stereotyping, bourgeois entitlement and sexism. She also brings some of the lesser-known girl detectives into the spotlight - especially Judy Bolton, a far more satisfying heroine than the rigid, frigid Nancy Drew. If a college course can be taught on Madonna, then this genre definitely deserves study and reflection for its influence on generations of little women. ... Read more

Book Description

Continuing in the tradition of her popular book With Rigor for All, Jago argues that all students, not just those enrolled in honors classes, deserve to read great literature. ... Read more

Book Description

When you combine science instruction with the enjoyment of literature you achieve new learning dimensions. The ideas, selected books, and exciting activities described in Literature-Based Science allow you to make learning about science interesting. The book is organized by grade levels, with each level divided into thematic units. Student objectives are clearly stated for each science theme, followed by a fully annotated list of the best children's books that use science as part of their stories. The authors also describe related activities and follow-up activities that help make reading and learning fun. This book affords you the flexibility to select those activities that best fit your students' instructional needs. ... Read more

Book Description

The unprecedented popularity of the Harry Potter books took the publishing world by storm and captured the imaginations of readers around the world. This unofficial biographical study of J. K. Rowling invites fans and critics alike to take a close look at the person behind the phenomenon, the facts of her life as a writer, and the extraordinary success of an ordinary woman. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

When You Are Done Reading ORDER OF THE PHOENIX.....
......read this book about the great writer, J. K. Rowling! I like how she played guitar and drew pictures, besides doing her writing. The author of this biography says that J. K. Rowling and Harry Potter are like the Beatles. From what my parents say about them, I think so, too. Then I heard on the webcast interview from London that J. K. Rowling's favorite group is the Beatles--so, it's like this author knew that already! You'll love this book if you like Harry Potter and J. K. Rowling. I love the names of the fungi in the Forest of Dean. If you grew up there, maybe you'd have J. K. Rowling's imagination, too! She read lots of books, too, which figures, doesn't it? This book tells more about the books she read than any other book I've seen about her. Over the summer, I'm going to write a letter to J. K. Rowling using her addresses in the back of this book. This book is packed with information! Buy it and read it!

I Love This Book!
Most of the books about J. K. Rowling are either too young for me or are just gossip about her. This book tells me about her life and her writing and about Harry Potter in a way I like. It's for older kids and adults. It's the most up-to-date book about J. K. Rowling on Amazon. There is a lot of information in the back, too, like addresses where to write to her and addresses for the charities she's involved with. It has pictures in it, too. I got this book as a gift, since my dad knew I would already get Order of the Phoenix. I love this book! I love J. K. Rowling and Harry Potter! I recommend this book to everyone who loves J. K. Rowling and Harry Potter like I do!

Nothing new in this book - very disappointing
I bought this book and Sean Smith's biography of the same name as I love the Harry Potter books and wanted to find out more about the author, who seems to be quite private and doesn't reveal much about herself. There is no new material in Kirk's book - in fact she has taken a lot of the information from Smith's book which came out 2 years ago so you may as well just buy that one!

If you buy this book thinking you'll read something new, don't bother.

A Harry Potter Fan
My mom and I both read this book while we were waiting for Harry Potter #5 to come out. It has some things in it I've never heard of before about Ms. Rowling. My mom said she thought the Forest of Dean near where Ms. Rowling grew up sounded like a magical place and maybe that's where some of her ideas came from. We loved the names of the mushrooms they have there! We liked this book a lot and recommend it to any Harry Potter fans out there who would like to know more about the author. It's also the most up-to-date biography we know of--it even mentions her new baby!

Up-to-date and Accurate
This book is very informative and provides a clear way of undrstanding parts of J.K. Rowling's life. It is by far the most accurate and up-to-date biography of J.K. Rowling.
I give this book 5 stars because of its accuracy and the fact that this book is the most up-to-date biography of J.K. Rowling. ... Read more

Download Description

PENROD SCHOFIELD, having been "kept-in" for the unjust period of twenty minutes after school, emerged to a deserted street. That is, the street was deserted so far as Penrod was concerned. Here and there people were to be seen upon the sidewalks, but they were adults, and they and the shade trees had about the same quality of significance in Penrod's consciousness. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

More Penrod Schofield.
Not quite up to "Penrod," but still a lot of fun. The ending lacks the satisfaction of that of its predecessor--but there's no way it could match THAT.

excellent book
This is a fine story about young boys growing up. There is a great deal of humor in it, much that is common to little boys. I think that is what makes a book like this so funny. I can relate to it.
However, the electronic version needs to be proofread to remove the countless spelling and punctuation errors. It is a shame that nowadays with all the tools available that editing of this kind is done. Whoever put the e-book together should be ashamed of their lousy work.

Good and Funny Book
Another collection of tales about Penrod Schofield and his playmate Sam. Together, the two of them get into more trouble than Dennis the Menace and the Little Rascals combined.

The tales contained weren't as interesting as the original Penrod however I was laughing out loud a time or two. Tarkington has the mannerisms down pat for a twelve year-old boy living around the WW1 area.

This book is listed as a juvenile book, however, I wouldn't recommend it for children unless they weren't afraid of dictionaries and some politically incorrect references to African-Americans. There is also a chilling tale about Penrod and Sam finding an old gun in Sam's father's drawer and what occurred with it. Too real in today's world, however the result of the tale was sobering.

Charming classical piece of literature from the early 1900s
A wonderful classic and a prime example of literature in the early 19th century. Booth Tarkington explores the bumptious rambles of a youth from 1913 named Penrod. Penrod does not bump through life alone however, and he is accompanied by his loyal yet aging dog duke, his best friend Sam Williams, and two African Americans across the alley, Herman and Verman. I found this book to be a charming and hillarious classic and is a must for any serious bookworm.

A warm and funny picture of a boy's life in pre-WWI America.
A warm and very funny picture of small town boy's life in pre-World War One America. It's told in a series of episodes that center around the two twelve year old or so boys of the title. It's not really a boy's book, despite its reputation. Tarkington's very interested in the psychology of Penrod's family as well as in the ways that kids relate to each other -- but it's all played for laughs. Also a clear picture of the mores of small-town America at a time when homes still had carriage houses in the back -- but no carriages or horses. ... Read more