Dictionnaire du livre de jeunesse: la littérature d’enfance et de jeunesse en France ed. by Isabelle Nières-Chevrel, Jean Perrot (review)

It has been almost forty years that the last substantial reference work was published on French children’s literature—Marc Soriano’s Guide de la littérature pour la jeunesse (Companion of Children’s Literature), published by Flammarion, Paris, 1975. In 2013, two experts on French children’s literature, Isabelle Nières-Chevrel and Jean Perrot, completed their ten-year editorial work of an extensive dictionary. Its title: Dictionnaire du livre de jeunesse: La littérature d’enfance et de jeunesse en France (A Dictionary of Children’s Books: Literature for Children and Young Adults in France).

Unlike Soriano’s book, Perrot and Nières-Chevrel’s project is the result of scholarly collaboration. They formed an editorial committee including Claude Ganiayre, Michel Manson, and Annie Renonciat and recruited another 133 scholars to pen a total of 1034 entries. The list of the contributors’ names reads like a “who is who” of French children’s literature scholarship.

In many respects, this dictionary represents a milestone. It documents the legendary variety, the resourceful imagination, the regenerative vitality, and the creativity of French literature for children. Thanks to its accessible writing, the dictionary reaches out beyond professional circles to include the general reader interested in this domain. Many contributors succinctly summarize French children’s literature scholarship of the past five decades and make it available. The entries, illustrated by 826 pictures, document the history of the genre and the medium from the time of the Ancien Régime to its contemporary formats, including the e-book. Two thirds of all entries cover authors and illustrators. Eighty articles of a more encyclopedic nature provide overviews over more complex questions of book history, literature studies and literary history, art, aesthetics, film, theater, etc.

A few things are left to be desired: The selection criteria for the illustrators and authors presented in the dictionary are not quite clear. Expectations raised by the sub-title, “La littérature de jeunesse en France” (Children’s literature in France) are satisfied only in part. The dictionary does feature many artists and writers, including a few international classics as well as a few representatives from francophone Switzerland and Belgium. But unfortunately, there is only a very limited number of eminent authors and illustrators from beyond the European francophone world who published or publish in France or who have left their mark on French children’s books. Some of these remarkable authors and illustrators are only mentioned in passing in the very interesting, albeit sweeping article with the slightly misleading title “La francophonie du sud et la littérature de jeunesse” (The francophone world of the south and children’s literature). Others are missing entirely.

Another irritating factor is the heterogeneity of the author and illustrator entries, which vary greatly in respect to up-to-date information, bibliographic selection, and mention of significant awards. Some entries come without any bibliographic references. And in some cases, some critical distance would have been more appropriate than the very affirmative presentation of the creators. An index of the different entries would have been of great use to readers. Finally, one wonders why a modern dictionary of literature, published in 2013, ignores valuable sources of online-information on the topic of French literature for children and young adults?

It is to be hoped that these issues will be addressed in a second edition of this dictionary. At the same time, it is obvious that a work of this complexity and scope, co-authored by many and over a long period time has to leave many questions unanswered. The publication of this volume remains a great feat. Le dictionnaire du livre de jeunesse is an indispensable reference...