Foreword to a series: "National Library Week, April 20-26.

Discusses the decline of children's library services, the library needs of children, the special character of children's librarianship, and book selection. (SRT)

Reports findings of a survey in which approximately 800 fifth and sixth grade students chose their favorite children's "classics." (FL)

Reviews a variety of books, both fiction and nonfiction, for young, intermediate, and older readers. Contains a special section of books with Christmas themes. (FL)

Discusses the ability of books to transmit nourishment to the mind and spirit, the importance of fostering reading skills and habits in young children, and the danger of subordinating language and books to inert machinery in education. The roles of parents, schools, libraries and society as a whole are explored. (CLB)

This paper focuses on book-centered and "non-book" children and the role of the Internet in changing literature and children's reading habits. Highlights include diversity in children's books; differing magazine readership across the continents; the concept of narrative; the problem of book-centered children becoming outsiders in a more…

The four major purposes of this study were: to examine and describe the in-depth discussions by selected sixth graders of specific books in an attempt to characterize the nature of the responses; to compare four strategies which were employed for initiating the different discussions; to discover the range of personal involvement which sixth…

Examines the social perspectives presented by a sample of the Children's Choices books to determine if the protagonists' behavior is primarily individualistic or shows concern for the group or community. Concludes that the books tended to espouse the self as the focus for activity. (FL)

Through stories, children become aware of their culture and make sense of their world. Past stories came from books; now they come from television. To develop a theory of children's literature, knowledge about children, about their books, and about reading must be placed in a new theoretical pattern. (PP)

Discusses costume play as a means for children to safely become other beings, cultivate their own style, experience culture, experiment with new materials, and escape their anxieties. Notes characters from children's literature who used or wanted costumes, and provides a creative activities sampler. (AEF)

Based on Louise Rosenblatt's transactional theory of reader response, the studies collected in this book present findings and recommendations that contribute to the understanding of how children create meaning from stories, how they acquire literacy skills to express that meaning, and what role educators play in these literary processes. The book…

There has been a remarkable amount of production and publication of children's poetry since the 1960s. One of the early, popular anthologies of children's poetry was "Miracles" (Simon & Shuster, 1966), with poems from English-speaking countries revealing how imaginative children could be and their use of metaphors. "The Me Nobody Knows: Children's…

Despite growing professional interest in the field of children's literature, adults provide few, if any, experiences to improve children's taste or enjoyment of books. A wide range of conflicting opinions exists concerning the wisdom of attempting in any way to guide children to read worthwhile books; and experts differ sharply with children over…

This paper argues that the best way to teach reading to children is through literature that reflects children's own language and what they consider relevant. Only those materials written in a language very similar to that which the child hears and uses himself, the author argues, will serve as the best teaching devices. Since the language of…

Offers an author's thoughts on winning the Newbery Medal. Reveals the writer's background and his tentative beginnings as a children's author. (NKA)