From: Janice Del Negro <delnegro>
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1998 09:23:57 -0500 (CDT)

At The Bulletin, we have two major audiences, school and public librarians. We attempt to address concerns of both audiences in terms of collection development and curriculum use. We will sometimes review books we might otherwise not because they have obvious curriculum value; the same for titles that fill "info-holes" in non-fiction collections for public libraries.

Picture books work on a number of levels for a number of audiences. It is important to recognize that many picture books have a very broad range of appeal, and cross both genre and audience lines. Do we review books differently for different review audiences? We try to review each title on its merits, mentioning where it will be most useful or appreciated.

The balance between a purely aesthetic review and one which addresses questions of use is a difficult balance to maintain, but being aware that the balance is necessary at all is the first step toward maintaining it.

Janice M. Del Negro

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books GSLIS/University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign delnegro at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu
Received on Wed 16 Sep 1998 09:23:57 AM CDT