From: TERRY M CLAUDIA F JOHNSEN <tmjohnsen>
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 08:57:30 -0500

To: CCBC and Leonard Marcus I had a question about series books that were briefly covered in "Minders." Bennett Cerf was the mastermind behind the Landmark Book series - and, using non-juvenile writers - indeed many prominent historians, both male and female - he may have raised the bar on formulaic non-fiction. (But he also presented the Modern Library for fifty years in a pretentious, yet accessible manner.) But what of the other prominent series - Childhood of Famous Americans with its orange covers (and over 250 volumes), the Signature Series, the North Star Series, even the Vision Books Series (with Catholic themes), among others? Do you feel they added to the canon and provided factual, reliable introductions to American history that were not met by the rest of the trade? Or did they merely make the publishers lots of money? Or did they do both? As a young student in the late 1960s, my stack of orange CFA - limit five at the Billings Park Library - was a weekly pilgrimage. And I find myself draw n to series books as I find them in used bookstores. I just wish they weren't $20 in a dust jacket! I find it interesting that many Landmarks are either canonized by homeschoolers as a "great introduction" or "accessible history", simple reads, etc., or else they are completely discounted and ignored as representing "dead white man's history" and not culturally inclusive. As a collector I find the books very period-oriented - yes, they can be seen as sexist and racist and stereotypical, and it was fifty years ago, but I am also impressed by how much of their prose takes complex historical events and makes them accessible to middle grade students. And the authors - Adele Nathan, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, etc., were representative of some of the best women writers, as were the men - Bruce Bliven, Mackinlay Kantor, Armstrong Sperry, etc. of the times, juvenile or other. I also find it interesting how several of the Landmark series have survived in new paperback editions and are still in print (and still in libr aries). Some of those that have survived have been rewritten and updated, but a few appear to be almost untouched - is that their staying power, that they are just well-written?. Do we just wax nostalgic about series books because that's what we were drawn to as children? There was always some comfort that the stories would unfold true to form, the heros and heroines were always presented in a positive light, and when you were finished you wanted to learn more about what to happened to them or what they did. Looking forward to any comments, and like others, thank you Leonard for participating in yet another informative CCBC discussion. T Johnsen > Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:51:21 -0500> From: schliesman at education.wisc.edu> To: ccbc-net at lists.education.wisc.edu> Subject: [CCBC-Net] Winding Down Minders> > Leonard Marcus can join us for one more day--which perfectly coincides > with the month--and our discussion--drawing to a close. To that end, if > you have any additional questions or comments f or Leonard about MINDERS > OF MAKE-BELIEVE or publishing for children, please post them by > Wednesday so he can respond. We will begin the "announcements" on > Thursday, July 31.> > On behalf of everyone here at the CCBC, I want to thank Leonard Marcus > for so generously and graciously fielding our questions and comments on > the history of children's publishing, and for sharing some of MINDERS OF > MAKE-BELIEVE with the CCBC-Net community. > > 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/> > _______________________________________________> CCBC-Net mailing list> CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu> Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe...> http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
Received on Wed 30 Jul 2008 08:57:30 AM CDT