Books Received

The Donkey Lady and Other Tales from the Arabian Gulf. Edited by Patty Paine, Jesse Ulmer, and Michael Hersrud. Berkshire, UK: Berkshire Academic Press, 2013.

This lavishly illustrated collection features sixteen folktales from the Middle East. The editors of this collection all teach at Qatar University, and they involved their students in the collection, translation, and illustration of these tales.

Edward Lear’s Nonsense Birds. By Edward Lear. Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2013.

This volume brings together many of Lear’s nonsense poems and illustrations featuring birds. Included in this collection are poems from A Book of Nonsense; Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets; and Nonsense Songs and Stories.

Mark Twain’s Homes and Literary Tourism. By Hilary Iris Lowe. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2012.

In this scholarly work, Hilary Iris Lowe discusses the connections between Mark Twain’s writings and the places where he lived over the course of his life. In addition to tracing the ways in which Twain’s homes figure in his stories, Lowe covers the history of these homes from their time as actual residences to their current status as museums. Of particular interest to children’s literature scholars is the chapter on Hannibal, Missouri, and its associations with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

When Children Play: The Story of the Right to Play. By Gina McMurchy-Barber. Markham, ON: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2013.

Gina McMurchy-Barber is a Canadian author who has written novels for children and young adults, but in this book she turns her attention to nonfiction. She examines the history and mission of the humanitarian organization Right to Play, which was founded in 2000. She also includes accounts of the organization’s efforts to provide disadvantaged children around the world with opportunities to engage in sports and other types of play activities.