ChLA Notes

The Children's Literature Association is a nonprofit, membership organization formed in 1973 to promote serious scholarship and research in children's literature and publish these findings in the journal Children's Literature: The Great Excluded and at an annual conference. The first annual conference of the Association was held March 15-17, 1974, at the University of Connecticut. The ChLA is pleased that the conference was successful in achieving its goals.

The theme of the conference was "Cultural and Critical Values in Children's Literature." The Association hoped to achieve three things. The first, as is evident from the conference theme, was to examine critically various aspects and types of children's literature through the presentation of papers, panels, and workshops. Three panels focused on fields, other than teaching, which are concerned with the literature of children: publishing, writing, and reviewing. Representing the publishing industry were George Nicholson of Viking Press, Barbara Bates of Westminster Press, and Pat Connolly of Doubleday & Co. The authors' panel consisted of John Langstaff, Jean Fritz, James Haskins, and Feenie Ziner. George A. Woods of The New York Times, Robert Miner of Newsweek, Donald Reynolds, a member of the Newbery-Caldecott Committee, and Barbara Rosen of Children's Literature, made up the reviewers' panel. All three panels discussed children's literature from their particular viewpoints, and all agreed on the need for applying critical standards to the field.

Eight papers presented to the conference critically examined areas within children's literature. Paper topics were "Literary and Cultural Values in the History of Children's Literature" (R. Gordon Kelly, Univ. of Pennsylvania); "The Utopia of St. Nicholas: The Present as Prologue" (Fred Erisman, Texas Christian Univ.); 'The Quest for Growth in Children's Literature" (Virginia L. Wolf, Univ. of Kansas); "The Tales of Manabozho: The Literary Traditions of the North American Indians" (Althea K. Helbig, Eastern Michigan Univ.); "The Social Odyssey of Diminutive Heroes" (Lori Clarke, Univ. of Utah); "Cotton Mather and His Children: Some Insights into Puritan Attitudes" (Carol Gay, Youngstown State Univ.); "Sacrifice in Wilde's The Happy Prince" (Jerome Griswold, Univ. of Connecticut); "For the Good of the Country: Cultural Values in American Juvenile Fiction, 1825-1850" (Anne S. MacLeod, Univ. of Maryland).

A second concern of the conference, to examine the teaching of children's literature, was reflected in informal discussion among those attending and by a panel devoted to this topic. This panel was made up of Dr. Irving Baker, School of Education, Univ. of Connecticut; Dr. Leonard Mendelsohn, Dept. of English, Sir George Williams Univ., Montreal; Dr. Francelia Butler, Dept. of English, Univ. of Connecticut; and Professor Glenn Sadler, Dept. of English, Point Loma College, San Diego. Many aspects of the topic were discussed; the panel agreed that there is a need to improve the quality of teaching in children's literature and thereby warrant the respect this area deserves.

This issue of respect was a third goal of the conference. The ChLA feels that children's literature is too often viewed as an insignificant area of literature without depth and complexity, which can be taught by anyone. The issues dealt with at the conference, the examinations made in the papers, showed this to be an erroneous viewpoint. As the conference program stated, if we respect the child, we must take his/her literature seriously, ensure that the literature merits respect in its own right, and respect the study of that literature. The conference was only one step in the changing of attitudes, but all who attended agreed that it was a significant step.

Following the conference, there was a meeting of the Executive Board of the ChLA. At the meeting the Board members voted to raise the membership fees due to rising costs. The new fees, effective March 17, 1974, are $14.50, regular membership; $7.00, student membership; and $20.00, institutional membership. The Board expressed reglet that this increase was necessary. Among other business, the Board noted with pleasure that membership in the Association continues to increase rapidly, indicating that the Association is meeting widely felt needs.

With the increase in its fees, the ChLA hopes to be...