The Criticism and Reviewing of Children's Books

The Criticism and Reviewing of Children's Books When Susan Cooper told me recently that she was going to steal my thunder in referring to some of my editorials, I had no idea that I would be left with hardly any lightning either. I'm afraid our minds have worked along uncannily parallel lines; moreover, she has said it all so bravely and beautifully. On the other hand, Susan spoke as a writer and an artist; I can speak only as a reviewer and critic. Perhaps there is something left for me to say, after all. It is only when we acknowledge that children's books are a legitimate part of universal literature — and not a negligible subgenre — that we can discuss the reviewing and criticism of literature for children. It is almost axiomatic that a deep and underlying respect for both books and children should direct, inspire, and focus the reviewing of children's books. Thousands of words have been written on the difference between reviewing and criticism, but it is still important to set down some wisely enunciated opinions. In "Reviewing," her famous essay written in 1939» Virginia Woolf put it squarely: "The critic is separate from the reviewer; the function of the reviewer is partly to sort current literature, partly to advertise the author, partly to inform the public." What is the essential difference between book reviewing and genuine criticism ? And, is literary criticism involved in book reviewing? Journalistic reviewing is mainly concerned with the present; it attempts to relate the book to an immediate audience, especially to people who have not read the book. Since its purpose is advisory, it can be regarded as a utilitarian service. But perhaps we should remember that Virginia Woolf also remarked, "It is a matter of the very greatest interest to a writer to know what an honest and intelligent reader thinks about his work." To which her husband, Leonard Woolf, added his own opinion on the function of a review» "It is to give to readers a description of the book and an estimate of its quality in order that he may know whether or not it is the kind of book which he may want to read. Reviewing is therefore quite distinct from literary criticism." But even before the Woolfs wrote these words, Anne Carroll Moore perceived the process quite clearly» The instant recognition and detachment of a piece of original work from a mass of ready-made writing and the presentation of one's findings and conviction constitute the reviewer's main chance. His function is to declare the book's quality and give it a place in association with other books. To the degree that the review stimulates the desire of the reader to read the book to confirm or to differ with the critic will it be contributory to thought, discussion, criticism, fresh creative work. And this, as I see it, is the true objective for the reviewer of children's books no less than for the reviewer in the general field. In a London Times Literary Supplement essay, Graham Hough of Cambridge University injected a note of humility into the whole discussion» "Criticism is either the secondary occupation of imaginative writers, or it is the occupation of the middlemen of literature — scholars, teachers, and journalists. Literature has need of its middlemen, but they are the diffusere and transmitters of culture, not its creators." (For a "middleman" reviewer like myself, an occasional letter from an author saying that one has understood what he was trying to do is a deeply rewarding experience.) True criticism, of course, probes beyond the Immediate; it should be timeless rather than ephemeral, and some criticism, like Aristotle's, which has lasted for more than two thousand years, has itself become literature. Many people who judge children's books are convinced that criticism and reviewing often coincide, that they combine the best of both worlds when their evaluations constitute critical reviews. Most journals and newspapers cover only a fraction of the children's books published annually. Thus the reviewer's very act of selection can constitute an exercise in criticism. The time-honored process begins with the questions» What was the...