The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English [Hardcover]

Victor Watson (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 27, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0521550645 | ISBN-13: 978-0521550642

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).

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

This is a useful reference tool, and a great browsing item, too. The focus is on children's books, not children's literature-or strictly literary works. Coverage includes drama, television, comics, children's annuals, adventure game books, and a range of media texts. The author states: "-I have tried, with the help of my advisory Editors, to do justice to the increasing and impressive range of successful children's books produced in [the U.S., Britain,] Canada, Australia, New Zealand, West and East Africa and India; and to the exciting and extraordinary renaissances in children's books that are currently taking place-for different reasons-in Ireland and South Africa." Entries include authors, titles, topics, periodicals, editors, and librarians and are as varied as the "Nancy Drew series," the "Goosebumps series," and more extensive articles on informational books, fairy tales, and folktales and legends. The essay on "neglected works" is a concise piece on children's writers whose works are "now largely forgotten; a book's excellence is no guarantee of its survival." "Sex in children's books" provides insight into the changes in literature for young people. While this may not be an essential item for most collections, district libraries will want it.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This well-crafted encyclopedia is an A-to-Z reference of children's books written in English from pre-Norman to current times. The countries covered include not only the United States and England but also Ireland, Australia, Africa, India, and others. The work contains four major types of entries: authors, titles, topics (e.g., school stories, fairy tales), and technical terms. It also includes awards, periodicals, and notable non-author/illustrator figures (e.g., librarians), but as these are not cross-indexed they cannot be easily located. The types of media covered include a broad range of children's literature as well as such formats as television, comics, and adventure-game books. The entries on authors and titles are very well done and in most cases quite exhaustive, but the topic entries are what make this work so valuable. Covering such areas as drugs in children's books, illustrations, publishing and publishers, lithography, movable books, neglected authors, superheroes, and a cross-cultural look at folktales and myths, the entries are all thoughtful, detailed, and illuminating. Many cover the history of their subject from the earliest appearance to modern publications, giving a depth that is often lacking in other reference works. Watson is an assistant director of research, Homerton College, Cambridge, a trustee of the Center for the Children's Book, and a prolific author of such works as After Alice: Exploring Children's Literature. His editorial panel is wide-ranging and well credentialed. The combined experience shows in the quality of the text. Highly recommended for all libraries. Neal Wyatt, Chesterfield P.L., VA

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 826 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (August 27, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521550645
• ISBN-13: 978-0521550642
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.3 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,821,132 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An odd and quirky assortment of entries, April 25, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English (Hardcover)

I found this compendium of review and comment to be highly inconsistent in quality and analysis from entry to entry. Although I was glad to see that Annie Fellows Johnston's Little Colonel series was included, the series is not given its due as a contributing element to literary works for girls at the turn of the 1900s. Aileen Fisher and Kitty Barne also receive less coverage and analysis than they deserve. Ironically, there is a long section under "n" devoted to "neglected works"! This is a higgledy-piggledy catchall section in a book that should devote more attention to many of the writers listed in that entry. A huge amount of ink is devoted to a long and rambling section called "publishers and publishing"; another long segment is called "information books." Obviously no encyclopedia of children's literature can include everyone's favorite author or aspect of the field. This book, however, needs tightening and recasting in the next go-round.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful, Engaging, periodically irritating, March 5, 2002

By 

Kim Velk (North Troy, Vermont USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English (Hardcover)

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...

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not that accessible, August 3, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English (Hardcover)

This book has a lot of information but not in a very accessible format. It is not easy to read or use.