Children's Literature Guides

What if you found another world, filled with magical creatures like centaurs, witches and a talking lion, and the door to it was in your own house? Beginning with the enchanted opening of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S Lewis’s seven Chronicles of Narnia have delighted readers for genera... More

Containing 40 stories in new translations by Tatar this celebration of the richness and dramatic power of the legendary fables also features 150 illustrations, many of them in color, by legendary painters."THE ANNOTATED BROTHERS GRIMM celebrates the richness and dramatic power of the legendary fable... More

Now in paperback, "Inventing the Child" is a highly entertaining, humorous, and at times acerbic account of what it means to be a child (and a parent) in America at the dawn of the new millennium. J. Zornado explores the history and development of the concept of childhood, starting with the works of... More

Continuum Contemporaries will be a wonderful source of ideas and inspiration for members of book clubs and readings groups, as well as for literature students.The aim of the series is to give readers accessible and informative introductions to 30 of the most popular, most acclaimed, and most influen... More

In his latest book, fairy tales expert Jack Zipes takes on the question of why some fairy tales "work" and others don't, why the fairy tale is uniquely capable of getting under the skin of culture and staying there. Why, in other words, fairy tales "stick." Long an advocate of the fairy tale as a se... More

Building on several years of research that included an examination of children's literature texts in 140 languages, Sandra Beckett introduces the retelling of the "Red Riding Hood" story in the general context of fairy tale intertextuality, a topic that has received very little attention in children... More

A critical examination of Tennyson's major poems, with brief analyses of his literary reputation and achievements... More

This remarkable book explores the history in literature and tradition of the wondrous fairies. Capricious and vengeful, or beautiful and generous, they've held us in thrall for generations.This remarkable book explores the history in literature and tradition of the wondrous fairies. Capricious and v... More

In his successful "Creative Storytelling," Jack Zipes showed how storytelling is a rich and powerful tool for self-expression and for building children's imaginations. In "Speaking Out," this master storyteller goes further, speaking out against rote learning and testing and for the positive force w... More

Collected by Laura Gonzenbach, this anthology of Sicilian folk and fairy tales is now translated into English for the first time.In one of the most startling literary discoveries of recent years, Jack Zipes has uncovered this neglected treasure trove of Sicilian folk and fairy tales. Like the Grimm ... More

The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books is an alphabetized reference work providing a critical and appreciative overview of children's books written in English worldwide. It is not a guide to "children's literature" but has a wider task--to include any author, or illustrator, or work, believed by th... More

Children's literature provides a medium through which writers re-create or approximate the sensibility of a child. But what exactly is this sensibility, and how does it find creative expression in adulthood? What language can portray the seemingly untranslatable experience of a child?"The Poetics of... More

The 2005 bicentenary of Hans Christian Andersen's birth is an opportunity to reevaluate the achievement of one of the great figures of the fairy tale and storytelling tradition, a beloved writer famous for "The Snow Queen" and "The Little Mermaid ", "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Red Shoes "and many o... More

Historical fiction has a great deal to offer as its readers and devotees have always known. The time is ripe however for the historical novel and historical picture book to be promoted more emphatically so that many more are made aware of the delight and learning to be found in the genre. The editor... More

The Mary Poppins that many people know of today--a stern, but sweet, loveable, and reassuring British nanny--is a far cry from the character created by Pamela Lyndon Travers in the 1930's. Instead, this is the Mary Poppins reinvented by Disney in the eponymous movie. This book sheds light on the ori... More

Charles Dickens's "Oliver Twist" (c.1850) is one of the most significant novels of the Victorian era and, having been adapted for both stage and screen, retains its impact in the cultural consciousness of many nations. Taking the form of a sourcebook, this guide to Dickens's novel offers: - extensiv... More