Three Titles of Interest

Here are three books (2 are dated, but I believe still quite relevant) you might find of interest as a general resource and for use in your children's librarianship research:

1) The Kids' Book Club Book: Reading Ideas, Recipes, Activities, and Smart Tips for Organizing Terrific Kids' Book Clubs. Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp. NY:Jeremy P.Tarcher/Penguin. 2007. 460 pp. paperback.$16.95.

Editorial Reviews(from Amazon)
The first complete guide-for use by adults and children-to creating fun and educational book clubs for kids.

As authors of The Book Club Cookbook, the classic guide to integrating great food and food-related discussion into book club gatherings, Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp hear a common refrain from parents, librarians, teachers, community leaders and kids themselves: "How about writing a book for kids' book clubs?" Indeed, in recent years youth organizations, parents, libraries, schools, and our local, state, and federal governments have launched thousands of book clubs for children as a way to counter falling literacy rates and foster a love of reading. Based on surveys representing five hundred youth book clubs across the country and interviews with parents, kids, educators, and librarians, The Kids' Book Club Book features:

_- the top fifty favorite book club reads for children ages eight to eighteen;
_- ideas and advice on forming great kids' book clubs-and tips for kids who want to start their own book clubs;
_- recipes, activities, and insights from such bestselling children's book authors as Christopher Paolini, Lois Lowry, Jerry Spinelli, Nancy Farmer, Christopher Paul Curtis, Andrew Clements, Laurie Halse Anderson, Norton Juster, and many others.

From recipes for the Dump Punch and egg salad sandwiches included in Kate DiCamillo's Because of Winn-Dixie to instructionson how to make soap carvings like the ones left in the knot-hole of a tree in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, this book provides a bounty of ideas for making every kids' book club a success.

About the Author
JUDY GELMAN and VICKI LEVY KRUPP are book enthusiasts and cooks who came together as friends to coauthor The Book Club Cookbook: Recipes and Food for Thought from Your Book Club's Favorite Books and Authors. Both authors live with their families in the Boston area.

2)The New Press Guide to Multicultural Resources for Young Readers.Ed. Daphne Muse. NY: The New Press. 1997. 690 pp. $60.00.

Editorial Review From Booklist
This guide to multicultural literature for young people brings together more than 1,000 reviews of picture books, novels, poetry, biographies, and other resources, which cover more than 20 different multicultural communities. The purpose of the book is to provide teachers and librarians with an easy-to-use resource for multicultural materials that includes both print and nonprint titles and identifies the best of these titles. Arrangement is thematic. Each chapter covers a different theme, such as community, family, cultural traditions and ethnic stereotyping, immigration, and justice and human rights. Within each chapter, titles are arranged first by grade level (K^-3, 4^-6, 7^-8) and then alphabetically. In addition to the reviews of resources, the guide includes a number of essays on topics in multicultural education, such as "Ethnic and Gender Stereotyping in Recent Disney Animation," "Illustrating the Point: A Commentary on Multicultural and Stereotypic Picture Books," "Teaching Culturally Diverse Students," and "CD-ROM Technology in the Multicultural Classroom." A number of these essays, such as Beverly Slapin and Jill Lessing's "Handicapism Checklist: What Do We Mean by `Handicapism'?" are reprinted from other sources.
Each chapter begins with a short introduction, signed by the author. Each review was written specifically for this volume and is signed by the author, in most cases a teacher or a librarian, and includes the following information: title, author, illustrator if applicable, publication date and publisher, and the community described in the book, such as Latino, Asian American, or Native American. Information is also provided about special availability, such as braille and foreign-language versions, and related titles. Reviews contain a brief synopsis of the story, the message it intends to convey, critical comments on the way that message is handled, and suggestions for how the title might be used in the classroom. Reviews are generally 300^-500 words long. In many cases, a photograph of the book jacket is included. Publication dates range from the 1960s to 1996, with the majority of the titles published in the 1990s.

Criteria used to assess the titles included the quality of writing and illustration, the accuracy and nuance of treatment of different cultural groups, the extent to which the title provides a new perspective, and the accessibility of text to the target audience. Children's classics and other popular titles that reflect negative stereotypes or outdated thinking may be treated critically in this volume. Most of the titles deal with African American, Native American, Latino, or Asian cultures; however, there are reviews of works that deal with European cultures. The gay/lesbian/bisexual and emotionally and physically disabled cultures are not left out of this work. Titles that reflect these cultures are critiqued as part of the editor's commitment to multicultural education.

The table of contents lists the essays included in each chapter. Theme and grade level are listed on the top of each page, making the volume easy to use. Other useful features include a time line called "Milestones in Children's Literature"; a list of catalogs, media materials, organizations, and books on children's literature; a list of children's book awards; lists of special library collections and notable bookstores; and biographical data about all of the contributors. The guide concludes with an index of titles, authors, and ethnic groups. Under ethnic group, titles are listed by page number only, which makes it cumbersome to locate all those titles dealing with Asian Americans, for example.

A number of other books on multicultural resources have been published contemporaneously. To name a few, Rebecca Thomas' Connecting Cultures: A Guide to Multicultural Literature for Children (Bowker, 1996) provides subject access to 1,600 titles. Multicultural Literature: An Annotated Bibliography, Grades K^-8, by Beth Beutler Lind (McFarland, 1996), lists 1,000 titles under four ethnic groups. This Land Is Our Land: A Guide to Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults (Greenwood, 1994) annotates nearly 600 books of poetry and oral tradition. The New Press Guide to Multicultural Resources for Young Readers provides good background and context, as well as longer reviews. The culmination of five years of work, it will be an essential resource for teachers and librarians. It will serve as an easy-to-use source for anyone looking for the best works to teach and learn about diversity and the many cultures that make up American life.

3) The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature. Humphrey Carpenter and Mari Pritchard. NY: Oxford University Press. 1999. $49.95. 588 pp.

Book Description (from Amazon)
The indispensable reference book for anyone concerned with children's books. Over 900 biographical entries deal with authors, illustrators, printers, publishers, educationalists, and others who have influenced the development of children's literature. The range of literature covered includes traditional narrative materials such as legends as romances; fairy tales; chapbooks; genres such as school stories, adventure stories, doll stories, and science fiction; ABC and other learning books; children's magazines, comics, and story papers; picture books; teenage novels; children's hymns; and children's stories on radio television and film. Other entries include: concise plot summaries, from familiar favourites like The Secret Garden to less well-known works such as My Friend Mr Leaky by the eminent scientist J. B. S. Haldane; characters, Andy Pandy to Tiger Tim, Captain Nemo to Shere Khan and Winnie-the-Pooh; literary and historical background, Puritans and penny dreadfuls, libraries and reviewers, racism and sexism; mythical and legendary creatures, trolls, dragons, witches, giants, dwarfs, and goblins; national surveys, including the USA, Germany, France, Italy, Denmark, Iceland, Canada, Australia, and India. Written both to entertain and instruct, The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature is a reference work no one interested in the world of children's books should be without.

About the Author
Humphrey Carpenter's books include biographies of J. R. R. Tolkien, W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis, Ezra Pound, and Benjamin Britten. He is the author of the popular Mr Majeika series of stories for children. Mari Prichard has worked as a broadcaster and teacher, and is now a local government education officer. She and Humphrey Carpenter were married in 1973 and have two daughters.