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[CCBC-Net] Minders of Make-Believe
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From: Megan Schliesman <schliesman>
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:59:30 -0500
Today we will formally our topic for the second half of July on CCBC-Net: "Minders of Make-Belive: Publishing for Children in the Twentieth Century and Beyond." Children?s literature historian Leonard S. Marcus, author of the new book "Minders of Make-Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs, and the Shaping of American Children?s Literature
"(Houghton Mifflin, 2008) joins us to talk about children's publishing in the twentieth century and beyond. Where have we been and where are we going in terms of milestones and markers of change?
No doubt many of us have now read the "New Yorker article about Stuart Little, "The Lion and the Mouse," by Jill Lepore
(http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/21/080721fa_fact_lepore/?currentPage=2).
One of the things that struck me in the article is the fact that the debate about what a children's book should be, or what is "appropriate" for children, that we see in the comments of Anne Carroll Moore, Katharine White, and even E.B. White, still exists today on various fronts, although the "answers" and perspectives have changed, at least in some ways. On the one hand, I still hear variations on the theme of the blending of fantasy and reality being too confusing for children, but generally from those who don't actually spend a lot of time observing children with books. Today I also hear questions raised about whether a book about a serious issue is "too much" for children, although, again, those who spend time regularly sharing books with kids are not the ones I see asking those questions. It seems to me that one of the ways children's literature has come of age is the fact that those immersed in the world of children's literature today reflect the perspective of groundbreaking editors like Louise Seaman Bechtel, Ursula Nordstrom and others who put their faith above all in children, which is where it should lie.
Leonard, I'm wondering what you can say about how the understanding of what a children's book is or can be has changed in int twentieth century, and perhaps share examples of groundbreaking books (and individuals) that helped paved the way for new understandings.
Megan
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:59:30 -0500
Today we will formally our topic for the second half of July on CCBC-Net: "Minders of Make-Belive: Publishing for Children in the Twentieth Century and Beyond." Children?s literature historian Leonard S. Marcus, author of the new book "Minders of Make-Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs, and the Shaping of American Children?s Literature
"(Houghton Mifflin, 2008) joins us to talk about children's publishing in the twentieth century and beyond. Where have we been and where are we going in terms of milestones and markers of change?
No doubt many of us have now read the "New Yorker article about Stuart Little, "The Lion and the Mouse," by Jill Lepore
(http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/21/080721fa_fact_lepore/?currentPage=2).
One of the things that struck me in the article is the fact that the debate about what a children's book should be, or what is "appropriate" for children, that we see in the comments of Anne Carroll Moore, Katharine White, and even E.B. White, still exists today on various fronts, although the "answers" and perspectives have changed, at least in some ways. On the one hand, I still hear variations on the theme of the blending of fantasy and reality being too confusing for children, but generally from those who don't actually spend a lot of time observing children with books. Today I also hear questions raised about whether a book about a serious issue is "too much" for children, although, again, those who spend time regularly sharing books with kids are not the ones I see asking those questions. It seems to me that one of the ways children's literature has come of age is the fact that those immersed in the world of children's literature today reflect the perspective of groundbreaking editors like Louise Seaman Bechtel, Ursula Nordstrom and others who put their faith above all in children, which is where it should lie.
Leonard, I'm wondering what you can say about how the understanding of what a children's book is or can be has changed in int twentieth century, and perhaps share examples of groundbreaking books (and individuals) that helped paved the way for new understandings.
Megan
-- Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison 608/262-9503 schliesman at education.wisc.edu www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/Received on Thu 17 Jul 2008 08:59:30 AM CDT
