Students in the English Language Arts classroom have access to more author commentary than ever. While following authors on social media may deepen students' engagement with their assigned reading, it also threatens to subdue students' own interpretations of the authors' texts. This essay explains how educators can introduce basic aspects of…

American publishers have published numerous children's books about Barack Obama over the past several years; most take the form of informational biographies. This article reports on a research project aimed at how these books incorporate sociohistorical narratives, particularly those related to the civil rights movement. Though the features of the…

Discusses the biographies of Jean Fritz, demonstrating that in the hands of an artist, biography benefits from the use of the conjectural tools of fiction, such as created dialogue or interior monologue. (ARH)

Examines relationships among children's fairy tales, the North American dream of going from rags to riches, the role of sports in North American society, and the uses and misuses of biographies written for young readers. (HOD)

This study examined children's literature and the development of biography intended for juvenile readers. The writer assembled a list of characteristics of writing for children, reviewed the growth of biography as a literary form, and noted the difference between biography written for the child audience and that intended for adults. Qualities were…

Illustrates how, in far too many ways, biographies of Christopher Columbus for young children have not changed much since the fourth centennial of Columbus' landfall. Asserts that the books are predominantly white, are addressed to whites, and exclude women. (PRA)

Presents a biography of children's book author Laura Ingalls Wilder; suggests appropriate activities related to her and the historical period of her books; and includes an annotated bibliography of her books, biographies, information material, activity books, media adaptations, Web sites, biographical information, and literary criticism and adult…

This study describes and analyzes, in a critical literary manner, selected biographies for children eight to twelve years of age. Biographies of Jane Addams, Cesar Chavez, Mohandas Gandhi, Toyohiko Kagawa, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Albert Schweitzer are viewed from the perspective of a literary criterion based on the principles of design to…

Reviews and recommends recent new publications and rereleases of both fiction and nonfiction works for young children, older adolescents, and adults. Genres include science fiction, mysteries, and biographies. (CRH)

This volume provides annotations, which include publishing and price information, as well as syntheses of content, of science fiction books and other works which concern science fiction or its instruction. Part one, "The Literature," contains detailed introductory comments and bibliographic citations relevant to each of the following periods: the…

Growing from an awareness of the significant increase in the number of professional books in the field of children's literature, this bibliography has been compiled to meet the needs of teachers, librarians, parents, and others interested in children and their books. The books selected represent new publications (since 1967) and revisions of or…

This is an introduction to the work of 19 contemporary English-language writers for children. It consists of critical essays on the works of Joan Aiken, L. M. Boston, H. F. Brinsmead, John Christopher, Helen Cresswell, Meindert DeJong, Eleanor Estes, Paula Fox, Leon Garfield, Alan Garner, Madeleine L'Engle, William Mayne, Andre Norton, Scott…

Eighteen papers on recent scholarship and its implications for school programs treat American ideas, novels, short stories, poetry, Emerson and Thoreau, Hawthorne and Melville, Whitman and Dickinson, Twain and Henry James, and Faulkner and Hemingway. Authors are Edwin H. Cady, Edward J. Gordon, William Peden, Paul H. Krueger, Bernard Duffey, John…

A concise yet comprehensive survey of works written for young people from infancy through early adolescence, this book provides both students of children's literature and the general reader with an introduction to the study of the field. The book is divided into two parts, the first addressing the contexts within which literature for young people…

Critically reviews modern writings about American Indians, focusing on Indian romance novels, children's stories, biographies, works by "urban mixed-bloods," and the "art for art's sake" stance. Views non-Native works as irrelevant and most Native writings as self-centered or escapist. Calls for Native intellectuals to…