Discusses William Beatty Warner's "Reading Clarissa: The Struggles of Interpretation," a study of Samuel Richardson's role as eighteenth-century critic and interpreter of his own novels. Examines the treatment of character by both Richardson and Warner, focusing on Richardson's humanist interpretation and Warner's anti-humanist…

Reviews 11 books that consider the politics of school reform. (MLF)

Analyzes the depiction of Black characters in children's fiction series since 1968. Discusses the following new trends: (1) revisions that eliminate stereotypes; (2) introduction of realistic contemporary Black characters; (3) tokenism; and (4) elimination of Black characters altogether. (FMW)

Explores links between two films, "Lilies of the Field" (1962) and "Driving Miss Daisy" (1987), their portrayal of African-American men in relationships with White women, and audience and critic responses to the films. Little has changed in the Hollywood perceptions since the earlier film was made. (JB)

Discusses some works by the following Australian writers of young adult literature: Ivan Southall, Patricia Wrightson, Bill Scott, Ruth Manley, Allan Baillie, Colin Theile, Ruth Park, Lee Harding, Robin Klein, and Eleanor Spence. (MM)

Reviews graphic novels for young adults, including five titles from "The Adventures of Tintin," a French series that often uses ethnic and racial stereotypes which reflect the time in which they were published, and "Wolverine," a Marvel comic character adventure. (Contains six references.) (LRW)

This viewer's guide reflects some of the best classic and contemporary film titles available. These are films that reflect the traditional values of faith, family, and freedom. Seventy-five films are reviewed in the categories of achievement, communism, conscience, entrepreneurship, faith, family, freedom, crime and justice, regulation and…

Reviews five books on school reform. At least two authors reinforce the philosophy that "every child can learn" with strong evidence in favor of heterogeneous classrooms. Another theme in the books is that education reform should encompass kindergarten through doctoral degrees. (MLF)

In his book, "Illiberal Education," Dinesh D'Souza dramatizes the transformation of American campuses and the academic revolution that is allegedly toppling traditional notions of Western civilization. However, many scholars are concerned that D'Souza'a collection of examples might leave readers with a false impression of the severity of…

Favorably reviews six reference works: (1) Klein's encyclopedia; (2) Ancient America atlas, Coe and colleagues; (3) Littlefield and Parins' analysis of America Indian newspaper publishing; (4) Kutsch's guide to Cherokee documents; (5) Malval's guide to Hampton Institute archives; and (6) Clements' guide to Indian folklore in nineteenth century…

Two contemporary films, "Braveheart" and "Rob Roy," depict Scottish ethnicity from a rather narrow perspective. The positions that are sentimentally admired when attributed to white natives of Scotland are horrifying when expressed by contemporary peoples of color. These films raise interesting questions about the true nature…

Reviews the best and worst in databases on disk, CD-ROM, and online, and offers judgments and observations on database characteristics. Two databases are praised and three are criticized. (Author/JMV)

Criticizes "The Education of Little Tree," by Forest Carter, for presenting an oversimplified and falsified view of both Indian and Appalachian cultural history in this tale of a Cherokee boy. Suggests that Carter, former white-supremacist publicist and Klansman, is pro-Indian only by way of being anti-Yankee. (SV)

Some critics believe Allan Bloom is wrong about many issues in "The Closing of the American Mind," which discusses failures in the contemporary university. The paper analyzes why the book is so popular, claiming Bloom is wrong about the history of the university, the sixties, race, class, and gender. (SM)

Reviews three books that argue that science education should reflect global scientific contributions, use multicultural and feminist perspectives, and be grounded in everyday life experiences with science. Suggests questions of policy and practice in moving from theory to implementation of a more equitable, socially responsible science education.…