The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter($39.95Value)

Description

Original artwork and materials explore children’s literature and its impact in society and culture over time A favorite childhood book can leave a lasting impression, but as adults we tend to shelve such memories. For fourteen months beginning in June 2013, more than half a million visitors to the New York Public Library viewed an exhibition about the role that children’s books play in world culture and in our lives. After the exhibition closed, attendees clamored for a catalog of The ABC of It as well as for children’s literature historian Leonard S. Marcus’s insightful, wry commentary about the objects on display. Now with this book, a collaboration between the University of Minnesota’s Kerlan Collection of Children’s Literature and Leonard Marcus, the nostalgia and vision of that exhibit can be experienced anywhere.  The story of the origins of children’s literature is a tale with memorable characters and deeds, from Hans Christian Andersen and Lewis Carroll to E. B. White and Madeleine L’Engle, who safeguarded a place for wonder in a world increasingly dominated by mechanistic styles of thought, to artists like Beatrix Potter and Maurice Sendak who devoted their extraordinary talents to revealing to children not only the exhilarating beauty of life but also its bracing intensity. Philosophers like John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau and educators such as Johann Comenius and John Dewey were path-finding interpreters of the phenomenon of childhood, inspiring major strands of bookmaking and storytelling for the young. Librarians devised rigorous standards for evaluating children’s books and effective ways of putting good books into children’s hands, and educators proposed radically different ideas about what those books should include. Eventually, publishers came to embrace juvenile publishing as a core activity, and pioneering collectors of children’s book art, manuscripts, correspondence, and ephemera appeared—the University of Minnesota’s Dr. Irvin Kerlan being a superb example. Without the foresight and persistence of these collectors, much of this story would have been lost forever.   Regarding children’s literature as both a rich repository of collective memory and a powerful engine of cultural change is more important today than ever. In 2013–14, the New York Public Library hosted an exhibition curated by Marcus about "the role children's books play in world culture and our lives," with materials spanning several centuries. He has since collaborated with the University of Minnesota's Kerlan Collection of Children's Literature to create a new iteration of the show and this catalogue, which pairs Marcus's original commentary with items from the Kerlan. The book explores the creation and evolution of children's literature (predominantly focusing on England and the United States), from morality lesson books to the Stratemeyer Syndicate to Harry Potter. There is discussion of comics, censorship, and art style trends. A coda contains a selection of contemporary works from the Kerlan, followed by a list for suggested reading. This catalogue is well designed, featuring crisp, full-color images of materials alongside annotations and commentary. However, while this "is not a strict history of children's books," it is glaring in what is missing: the racist past (and present) of children's literature. The racial stereotyping in The Story of Little Black Sambo is brought up, but racism isn't examined in sections about Mary Poppins or Dr. Seuss. Some works by creators of color and different cultures are represented, but there isn't mention of how disproportionately white the world of children's literature has continually been. VERDICT While this title will be nostalgia inducing for some, its unwillingness to grapple with racial inequities makes the overall effect saccharine and lessens its authenticity.—Jenna Friebel, Oak Park Public Library, IL "This is a book for the child in all of us―an exquisitely rendered volume that underscores the power of words and pictures to inspire, build, and transform."―Andrea Davis Pinkney, New York Times best-selling author of A Poem for Peter: The Story of Ezra Jack Keats and the Creation of The Snowy Day "WOW. Fascinating. Illuminating. And deeply entertaining. Required reading for anyone interested in children, reading, and/or children’s reading."―Jon Scieszka, Inaugural National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature "This is a beautiful reimagining of a milestone exhibition on children’s literature. Exquisitely rendered and inclusive in its vision. Highly recommended."―Lynne M. Thomas, Head of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign "Eloquent, illuminating, and often revelatory, this thematic crash course in the history of iconic children’s books is a visual feast."―Judy Freeman, author of The Handbook for Storytelling "Marcus’s text intriguingly tracks deep connections between children’s books and their larger society