English 313: Topics in Literary Studies/Makman

Contents Listing: Kids and kiddie lit -- What Fauntleroy knew -- Kiddie lit in the academy -- The case of the boys' book : whitewashing Huck -- The case of the girls' book : Jo's girls -- The case of American fantasy : there's no place like Oz -- The case of British fantasy imports : Alice and Harry in America -- The case of the Disney version.

"A History of Children's Books in 100 Books takes a global perspective and traces the development of the genre from ancient stories, such as Aesop's Fables and the Indian Panchatantra, through the Puritan primers of the 17th century to the Harry Potter series and books as technology. Taking the approach of its precursor, The History of the Book in 100 Books, this book is about children's books as artifacts, as well as the texts they contain, and the industry and society that produced them."

"Children's Literature charts the makings of the Western literary imagination from Aesop's fables to Mother Goose, from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to Peter Pan, from Where the Wild Things Are to Harry Potter...Children's Literature is an exhilarating quest across centuries, continents, and genres to discover how, and why, we first fall in love with the written word."

Based on an exhibition held at The Grolier Club, December 10, 2014-February 7, 2015, this catalog highlights 100 books published between 1600 and 2000, and in the process explores the "evolution of children’s reading practices, changing approaches to child-rearing throughout time, and cultural and psychological paradigm shifts."

"Lucy Pearson's lively and engaging book examines British children's literature during the period widely regarded as a 'second golden age'. Drawing extensively on archival material, Pearson investigates the practical and ideological factors that shaped ideas of 'good' children's literature in Britain, with particular attention to children's book publishing."

"A provocative look at the fierce turf wars fought among pioneering editors, progressive educators, and librarians--most of them women--throughout the twentieth century...Marcus offers a richly informed, witty appraisal of the pivotal books that transformed children's book publishing, and brings alive the revealing synergy between books like these and the national mood of their times."

"This book is the first full-length critical study to explore the rapidly growing cadre of amateur-authored, independently-published, and niche-market picture books that have been released during the opening decades of the twenty-first century. Emerging from a powerful combination of the ease and affordability of desktop publishing software; the promotional, marketing, and distribution possibilities allowed by the Internet; and the tremendous national divisiveness over contentious socio-political issues, these texts embody a shift in how narratives for young people are being creatively conceived, materially constructed, and socially consumed in the United States."

"The child as the audience for books in the English language is the subject of this bibliographical study, which had its origins in an exhibition held at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. From this beginning, Felix de Marez Oyens and Brian Alderson have compiled Be Merry and Wiseand shown how certain creative talents, driven by a sense of purpose, or a wish to make some money, attempted to appeal directly to children, and how the publishing industry came to realize that this audience might prove to constitute a profitable market."

Based on lectures given at the William Andrews Clark Library in 1986-87, these essays discuss the many aspects of the history of the book, with a range of topics related to manuscripts as well as books. This is the second title in The British Library Studies in the History of the Book series.