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Writers for Children: Critical Studies of the Major Authors since the Seventeenth Century
Writers for Children Critical Studies of the Major Authors since the Seventeenth Century Author:Jane M. Bingham (Editor) In one volume, this collection provides a thoughtful survey of eighty-four writers whose works have become classics for children and young people and whose influence has been most enduring in a period that reaches nearly three centuries. Authors from the United States, Britain, and continental Europe are included for their continuing popular or ... more »scholarly status, such as Mark Twain; for their importance as collectors of folk literature, such as the Grimm brothers; or for their reputations at the time they were writing, such as Hendrik Willem van Loon.
The selection of subjects is presented in alphabetical order, and it ranges chronologically from Charles Perrault, the seventeenth-century Parisian who popularized the Mother Goose tales, to Carol Ryrie Brink, the creator of Caddie Woodlawn and one of the most beloved twentieth-century American writers of stories for girls.
Much more than a catalog of titles and biographical facts, Writers for Children provides for the first time a broad range of critical studies of authors and their works. Sixty-four contributors with a variety of backgrounds--among them teaching professionals, librarians, critics, and some who are themselves writers of children's books--enhance the scope of the enterprise.
Each contributor blends the important details of a writer's life with a well-considered critical assessment of the works. And in every essay a selected bibliography lists the original works and the secondary sources of greatest use for further research. A complete index at the end of the volume guides the reader to all of the important persons and works discussed throughout.
Rich in its appeal and unique in its coverage, Writers for Children fulfills a wide range of interests. Experts in the field of children's literature will enjoy the most recent and stimulating scholarship, particularly on subjects who previously have not received adequate critical attention. Students will recall familiar stories and characters and will rediscover favorite authors from their early years of reading or from their recent studies. And librarians who wish to prepare for their work with children and parents will appreciate the rewards that these critical discussions offer, in a convenient one-volume reference work.« less