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Children's Literature Association Quarterly 32.4 (2007) 390-391

Books Received
Mark I. West
Adventures in the West: Stories for Young Readers. Edited by Susanne George Bloomfield and Eric Melvin Reed. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2007.

This anthology consists of twenty-six stories set in the American West. All of these stories originally appeared in either The Youth's Companion or St. Nicholas between 1890 and 1917. Taken as a whole, these stories provide insights into the mythologizing of the American West. Among the authors represented in this collection are L. Frank Baum, Hamlin Garland, and Mary Austin.

Building Blocks: Building a Parent-Child Literacy Program at Your Library. By Sharon Snow. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2007.

Intended as a practical guide for librarians who work with preschoolers, this book outlines a series of paired workshops related to the development of children's literacy skills. Each pair describes one workshop for children and an accompanying one for parents. Although this book focuses more on the development of literacy skills than on works of children's literature, it does include references to many picture books.

Disciplining Germany: Youth, Reeducation, and Reconstruction after the Second World War. By Jaimey Fisher. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 2007.

In this scholarly work, Jaimey Fisher examines the role that reeducation played in helping Germans come to terms with their Nazi past during the postwar years. Fisher pays particular attention to films, but he also discusses prominent authors, such as Thomas Mann.

House of Happy Endings: A Memoir. By Leslie Garis. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.

Leslie Garis is the granddaughter of Howard Garis, the author of the Uncle Wiggly books and many other series books for children. As she recounts in this memoir, her grandparents, her parents, and her siblings all lived in a large house in Amherst, Massachusetts, but they were far from a big, happy family. She often contrasts the cheerful tone of Howard Garis's books with the sadness and stress that typified life in the Garis household.

Preschool Favorites: 35 Storytimes Kids Love. By Diane Briggs. Chicago: ALA Editions, 2007.

This guide provides detailed advice for teachers and librarians who regularly [End Page 390] conduct storytelling sessions. Each of the thirty-five chapters focuses on a possible theme for a storytelling session, such as "Going on a Dragon Hunt" or "Mysterious, Magical Eggs." For each theme, Diane Briggs suggests specific books and activities related to the theme.

Tales to Tickle Your Funny Bone: Humorous Tales from around the World. By Norma J. Livo. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2007.

This collection consists of more than seventy stories, including tall tales, trickster stories, and urban legends. Norma Livo notes the country or culture of origin for each of these stories.

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