Children's Literature, an Annotated Bibliography

Some of my favorite children's books.

The greatest difficulty I face in most of these units is figuring out what to write about. I like to keep my writing interesting and the best way for me to do that is to write about what interests me. Last Saturday, I was perusing the of topics we could write our annotated bibliographies about. I came across visual arts and how these were affected by printing. This led me to think about illustrations in books, which led me to thinking about picture books, which led me thinking about children's books, which led me to writing my last post on Monday. The more I have learned about the history of children's literature, the more enamored I become with it. THEREFORE I give you an annotated bibliography about children's literature, its history, criticism, and evaluation of the genre as it affects the printed word.

Bibliography: Children's Literature

• Haviland, Virginia. Children's Literature -- A Guide to Reference Sources. Library of Congress, 1966: Provides a definitive annotated bibliography of reference books about Children's Literature. Discusses the relevance each work has to the "creation, reading, or study" of children's books. Includes section focusing on history and criticism, authorship, illustration, books and children, the library and children's books, international studies, and national studies. 
• Smith, Lillian H. The Unreluctant Years; a Critical Approach to Children's Literature. American Library Association, 1953: Considered to set the standard for evaluating Children's Literature, this work contains a collection of essays that aid readers in the selection of Children's Literature in various genres. Teaches analysis techniques as they apply to Children's Literature, providing tools that allow readers to make quality selections. [Found through Children's Literature -- A Guide to Reference Sources]
• Smith, James S. A Critical Approach to Children's Literature. McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1967: Smith discusses methods for analyzing Children's Literature. He emphasizes how Children's Literature should be considered independently of adult literature in analysis. Evaluates the worth of Children's Literature and talks about the role of Children's Literature in today's society.
• Meigs, Cornelia, Anne Eaton, Elizabeth Nesbitt, and Ruth Vigues. A Critical History of Children's Literature. The Macmillan Company, 1953: Provides a detailed history of Children's Literature. The book gives definition to what Children's Literature is and chronicles its evolution from folklore to picture books of the 20th Century. Written in parts, the book breaks up the history of Children's Literature into 4 distinct sections of team, each defined by how Children's Literature was changing: Roots in the Past (beginning - 1840), Widening Horizons (1840 - 1890), A Rightful Heritage (1890 - 1920), and The Golden Age (1920 - present at time of publication). 
• Zipes, Jack. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature. Oxford University Press, 2006: a "comprehensive reference work" that examines Children's Literature from all aspects: history, general info, definitions, research ideas, overview of recent scholarship, and the components of the actual writing in Children's Literature. Also provides overviews of "significant writers, illustrators, publishers, librarians, educators, and developments in the field of Children's Literature throughout the world." As a fairly recent work, the Oxford Encyclopedia has some of the most current information about Children's Literature.
• Modern Language Association Division on Children's Literature and the Children's Literature Association. Children's Literature Volumes 1-39. John Hopkins University Press, 1972-2011: Published yearly, Children's Literature is a scholarly journal that contains a multitude of essays and articles regarding the field of Children's Literature. Considered the one of the most current and pertinent resources in the field of Children's Literature research.

My library experience was not too unlike the photo above, if not some what less haphazard. I started by conducting multiple searches related to Children's Literature through the Harold B. Lee Library online catalog. I compiled a list of 6-8 books. Then I traveled the Juvenile Reference section and PN 1008-1009 on the 5th floor to find my book. For the most part, I was able to locate my selected books, but sometimes, if books were not put back correctly, I was unable to find my original picks. However, as I perused the shelves, I was able to find more books on the subject that I liked even better than my original picks. My favorite moment in the entire process occurred when I found The Unreluctant Years on the shelf after reading about it in the bibliography of another book. It was incredibly empowering to realize I can easily find books in this way.

In our time of readily available internet resources, I think a lot of us fall into what I like to call the Google Trap. In stead of consulting tangible books, we simply stick to online sources. Completing this bibliography assignment has taught me the value of finding sources by physically picking out books. It may be more time consuming, but the results are far more satisfying.