Books Received
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Books Received
The ABC of It: Why Children's Books Matter. By Leonard S. Marcus. Foreword by Lisa Van Drasek. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2019.
The origins of this lavishly illustrated book can be traced back to the author's curating of an exhibition on the history of children's literature at the New York Public Library in 2013–14. In many ways this book functions as a catalog for this exhibition, but goes farther by including additional material, especially from the University of Minnesota's Kerlan Collection of Children's Literature. The volume includes full-color images from key works of children's literature from Puritan times to the present.
Chromographia: American Literature and the Modernization of Color. By Nicholas Gaskill. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2018.
This ground-breaking work explores the connections between color and American literature. Nicholas Gaskill draws on optical science, sensory perception, and aesthetics in his analysis of the role that color plays in American literature. For readers interested in children's literature, Gaskill's chapter titled "The Production and Consumption of a Child's Views of Color" is especially pertinent. Here he focuses on L. Frank Baum's use of color in The Wonderful Wizard of Ozand some of that author's other works for children.
Nuts about Squirrels: The Rodents That Conquered Popular Culture. By Don H. Corrigan. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2018.
Don H. Corrigan examines the portrayal of squirrels in popular culture, including children's culture. He devotes an entire chapter to squirrels in children's books, starting with Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Squirrel Nutkinand ending with Grace Marmour Spruch's Squirrels at My Window: Life with a Remarkable Gang of Urban Squirrels. The book also includes a chapter on squirrels in cartoons and animated movies. [End Page 332]
Reading Children's Literature: A Critical Introduction(2nd edition). By Carrie Hintz and Eric L. Tribunella. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2019.
First published in 2013 and intended primarily as a college-level textbook, this volume emphasizes the importance of close critical analysis of literary works. The second edition offers a great deal of additional material, including a new chapter on children's literature and popular culture. [End Page 333]
