The essays in this collection are about neglected classics of children's fiction. The essays first appeared in the "Washington Post" and the "Los Angeles Times." With a scope limited to those works (mostly from the 20th-century) already overlooked or in danger of slipping from view, the 30 essays lead the reader through a wide spectrum of fiction, ranging from stories for the very youngest listeners to nuanced novels for the adolescent reader. The essays deal with fiction which responds to many childhood interests: dolls and their houses; animals of varied talents and personalities; travels through time and space; romances promised, sometimes failed, sometimes realized; castles and battling warriors; magic of familiar as well as alien worlds; and historical bits woven into stories. Authors were chosen because they know how to make a story work for children and they know what it feels like to be a child in an adult world. Some of the authors whose fiction is represented are: Richard Adams, Arthur Conan Doyle, Wanda Gag, Rumer Godden, Anne Lindbergh, Hugh Lofting, Ernest Thompson Seton, Margery Sharp, Noel Streatfield, Ursula K. LeGuin, E. Nesbit, Robert Lawson, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. (NKA)