Books Received

Aesthetic Approaches to Children's Literature: An Introduction. By Maria Nikolajeva. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2005.

This textbook is designed for use in children's literature courses in which literary criticism is emphasized. Nikolajeva's goal is to provide students with an "analytical toolkit" that they can use to better understand the aesthetic dimensions of children's literature. Among the critical approaches covered in this book are hermeneutics, structuralism, psychoanalysis, and feminist theory.

Companion to American Children's Picture Books. By Connie Ann Kirk. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005.

This reference work contains approximately 400 entries on notable American picture books, important picture book authors and illustrators, artistic terms and techniques, and relevant awards. The entries on individual picture books all include a summary of the book, information on the media used in the illustrations, an anecdote related to the book or its author, a listing of awards given to the book, the dates of birth for the author and illustrator, and a listing of the key subjects covered in the book.

International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature. 2nd ed. Edited by Peter Hunt. London and New York: Routledge, 2004.

This two-volume reference work consists of 112 substantial entries organized under the following headings: "Theory and Critical Approaches," "Forms and Genres," "Contexts," "Applications," and "National and International."

Language, Literacy, and the Power in Schooling. Edited by Teresa L. McCarty. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2005.

The contributors to this volume take an ethnographic approach to exploring how literacy education occurs in a variety of ethnic communities, including American Indian, Latin American, African American and urban multiethnic neighborhoods. Although none of the twelve chapters focuses on children's literature, they all touch on the use of published and oral stories in the formal and informal schooling of the children from these various communities.

Metacognition in Literacy Learning: Theory, Assessment, Instruction, and Professional Development. Edited by Susan E. Israel, Cathy Collins Block, Kathryn L. Bauserman, and Kathryn Kinnucan-Welsch. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2005.

The editors of this volume bring together some of the most recent research findings into the various factors that affect children's reading comprehension. None of the 20 chapters deals specifically with children's literature, but several of the contributors discuss how children's cognitive development governs children's responses to literary works.

The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature: the Traditions in English. Edited by Jack Zipes, Lissa Paul, Lynne Vallone, Peter Hunt, and Gillian Avery. New York: W. W. Norton, 2005.

This massive anthology includes works by 170 authors and illustrators. The selections date from the mid-1600s to the present. In some cases excerpts are used, but over 40 longer works are reprinted in their entirety. Each selection has a head note that provides background information and places the work in its historical context. The selections are organized under the following headings: "Alphabets," "Primers and Readers," "Fairy Tales," "Animal Fables," "Classical Myths," "Legends," "Judeo-Christian Stories," "Fantasy," "Science Fiction," "Picture Books," "Comics," "Verse," "Plays," "School Stories," and "Domestic Fiction."

Rethinking Disney: Private Control, Public Dimensions. Edited by Mike Budd and Max Kirsch. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2005.

The editors of this volume have collected a series of essays that take a political approach to analyzing Disney's empire. Of particular interest to children's literature specialists is the chapter on Disney's treatment of Winnie-the-Pooh.