The Continuum Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, and: The Essential Guide to Children's Books and Their Creators, and: The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English (review)

Perhaps one sign that an academic discipline has achieved "respectability" is the appearance of the one-volume standard reference work. Although it took some time, we are pleased to announce that the field of children's literature is now blessed with standard reference works. It was not until 1984 that the field was presented with its first one-volume encyclopedic reference, Humphrey Carpenter and Mari Prichard's The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature. For years it was the only single-volume guide available, so teachers and scholars forgave its shortcomings (some of which were addressed in its 1999 reincarnation, although it still contains peculiar omissions, a decided British slant, and is weak on contemporary literature) and were grateful for its groundbreaking effort.

The past two years have produced a bumper crop of reference works, each quite different from the rest and all deserving our attention. Published in 2001 were The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English, edited by Victor Watson, and The Continuum Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, edited by Bernice E. Cullinan and Diane G. Person. Most recently we have The Essential Guide to Children's Books and Their Creators, edited by former Horn Book editor Anita Silvey. Silvey's is an updated, revised version of her earlier book, Children's Books and Their Creators (1995).

In an insane moment, your reviewer imagined it possible to make a final pronouncement on the relative value of these three works and offer advice on which to purchase. To own all three might be desirable, but The Continuum Encyclopedia, priced at a hefty $150, and The Cambridge Guide, at $75, are clearly not for the faint of heart. The Essential Guide is being marketed as a college textbook and is a $17 paperback. As it turns out, the relative cost is not the only area in which we find dramatic differences.

To compete with the plethora of Internet information available, a single-volume guide must have, above all else, accurate and lucid entries written by knowledgeable and articulate contributors. In addition, we expect the work to supply us with such basic information as important dates, places, and titles. Following The Oxford Companion's lead, The Cambridge Guide includes entries on people, titles, characters, and literary terms and trends, making it the most thorough in its coverage and the easiest to use. On the surface it may seem to perpetuate Carpenter and Prichard's heavy British bias, but this is belied by generous entries on such specific topics as Little Women, The Little Engine That Could, Harriet the Spy and St. Nicholas Magazine—all virtually ignored by both other guides. In fact, The Cambridge Guide is quite pervasive in its coverage—encompassing virtually the entire English-speaking world, from Australia and New Zealand to South Africa and Canada.

The entries are informative and do not shrink away from value judgments, but the emphasis and great strength of this volume is history (reaching back to pre-Norman times in Britain), not criticism. The most traditional of the three works, it contains a treasure trove of easy-to-locate information (including much fascinating trivia—items on "Nudity In Children's Books," "Ballet Stories," "Playground Rhymes," "Pony Stories," and "Literature Within Children's Literature," to name but a few).

The Continuum Encyclopedia is less comprehensive (it has fewer than half as many entries as The Cambridge Guide), containing entries on people and literary terms and trends, but none on titles or characters. The Continuum Encyclopedia is an American publication and usually pays greater deference to...