Writings on Children's Literature

Two new books dealing with commentary on Children's Literature.

WILD THINGS by Bruce Handy, contributing editor at Vanity Fair, is a fun look at children’s literature, prompted in part by Handy’s rediscovery and enjoyment of Where the Wild Things Are when reading it to his own young son. Readers will be familiar with many titles that Handy notes: Goodnight Moon, Charlotte’s Web, The Snowy Day, Beezus and Ramona, House at Pooh Corner, the Giving Tree, and SO many more.  The book begins with picture books, moves through animal stories, and eventually profiles books for older readers through late elementary and early middle school; biographical information about key authors like Margaret Wise Brown, Beatrix Potter, and Maurice Sendak is provided with a conversational tone that manages to be both informative and entertaining. Handy’s affection for children’s literature is evident throughout as he says, “I hope this book will shed light on why we loved the books we loved, and on the social and personal contexts that produced them in the first place; what they meant to their authors and illustrators …”  WILD THINGS, available this month from Simon & Schuster, received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal AND Publishers Weekly.

Called a “a fascinating and necessary critical work” by Kirkus, WAS THE CAT IN THE HAT  BLACK? by Philip Nel

explores the hidden racism in children’s books while promoting the need for more diverse selections. Across five chapters Nel argues “we must change the ways we produce, promote, read, and teach literature for young people” and then, near the end of his text, offers 19 specific suggestions, including, for example, the need to “recognize that personal racism is often unconscious and that systemic racism is typically invisible.”  He references work by Karen Fields and Barbara Fields as well as that of Anna Holmes to raise awareness about racecraft, or use of language that may conceal racial assumptions (e.g., racial profiling vs. racist profiling or “diverse books” positioning White males as the default and everyone else as “Other”). Along the way, he encourages all of us to be skeptical, critical readers and advocates for a series of questions which could be used with any text (e.g., Who is silenced/heard here? What assumptions does the text make about culture and culture of its readers?). Nel is University Distinguished Professor of English at Kansas State University and his opinions and scholarship are both evident in this well-researched and heavily footnoted work published by Oxford University Press.