Curriculum and Instruction

For a number of books about teaching literature and additional articles from The New Advocate, The Reading Teacher, and other sources, see Children's Literature Abstracts.

Baker, N. "Books for Schools: 2, Picture Books-Images and Issues." Multicultural Education Review 11 (1990/1991): 43-44. African-Caribbean themes.

Bennett, Jill. Learning to Read with Picture Books: A Signal Bookguide. Fully revised 4th edition. Stroud: Thimble Press, 1991. ISBN 0-903355-37-X. £3.75 (US $8). Introduction followed by annotated lists of over 300 books, arranged under age-group headings. Index lists authors, titles, and illustrators with ISBNs and price.

Biglmaier, Franz. "Recent Political Changes in Germany and their Impact on Teaching Reading." The Reading Teacher 44.9 (May 1991): 634-637. Starts with German reading methods in the 16th cen., describes differences in texts and practices that began when the Germanies were split, and discusses probabilites for reuniting methods and texts. G.A.

Brown, Rexford G. Schools of Thought: How the Politics of Literacy Shape Thinking in the Classroom. Pp. 290. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1991. $24.95. Review, Richard Louv, "Making the Grade," New York Times Book Review 1 Sept. 1991:26 (with Shut Up and Let the Lady Teach: A Teacher's Year in a Public School by Emily Sacher, New York: Poseidon Press, 1991). Brown charges that school reform is often a barrier to the new "literacy of thoughtfulness." More should be done on the model of public schools in Pittsburgh and Toronto. G.A.

Campbell, A K. D. "Chidren's Books in Teacher Education Libraries." Education Libraries Journal 33.2 (1990): 1-7.

Carter, Betty and Richard F. Abrahamson. "Nonfiction in a Read-Aloud Program." Journal of Reading 34.8 (May 1991): 638-42. Presents a strong case for nonfiction being preferred by many adolescents for read-aloud sessions. E.M.B.

Chambers, Aidan. The Reading Environment. Stroud: Thimble Press, 1991. ISBN 0-903355-361. £4.95. A clearly written, practical guide for teachers and librarians. Ideal for students and those wishing to brush up. G.A.

Coles, Robert. "Illiteracy and Loneliness." Proceedings: Literacy Through Literature-Children's Books Make a Difference. International Board on Books for Young People. Williamsburg, USA, 1990. Newark, Delaware: US Board on Books for Young People, 1991. 36-41. Uses story of a child patient to illustrate his thesis that books are therapeutic. G.A.

Daniel, Jerlean. "Emergent Literacy-Ready or Not." Children's Literature in Education 21.4 (Dec. 1990): 261-64. Essay Review of Emerging Literacy, ed. Strickland and Morrow (1989), Encouraging Early Literacy, by Judith Schwartz (1988), and Young Children and Picture Books, by Mary Renck Jalongo (1988). Generally favorable. G.A.

Dillingofski, Mary Sue. "Jonah and the Whale and Children's Books." The ALAN Review 18.2 (Winter 1991): 52-54. On children's book publishing and the integrated language arts curriculum. C.A.

Dodsworth, Martin. "The Undermining of English: How the National Curriculum Threatens Literature Teaching." Times Literary Supplement 22 February 1991: 11. Argues that the classics of English literature arc scanted or neglected. Mentions being "bored to spiritual death" by Gerald Durrell and Rosa Guy. G.A.

Finniss, Ern & John Foster. "Images of Schools in Modern Children's Novels." Orana 27.4 (Nov. 1991): 206-18.

Greenway, William and Betty. "Meeting the Muse: Teaching Contemporary Poetry by Teaching Poetry Writing." Children's Literature Association Quarterly 15.3 (Fall 1990): 138-42. Suggestions for moving children from the rhymed, metrical verse they prefer to modern verse by way of haiku and "The Red Wheelbarrow." G.A.

Hade, Daniel D. "Being Literary in a Literature-Based Classroom." Children's Literature in Education 22.1 (March 1991): 1-17. Ways of looking at literature and how literature can be read, ways of viewing children as readers of books. Extensive list of children's books and other references. G.A.

Hopkins, Lee Bennett. "Leave Me Alone,' Cries The Poem." Perspectives 7.3 (Jan. 1991): xiii-xv. A plea to protect poetry from "study-guide-disease." G.A.

Hopkins, Lee Bennett. "The Ultimate Teacher's Guide to Whole Language in The Whole Wide World." The New Advocate 4.2 (Spring 1991): 85-88. An amusing...