Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy by Anna Boyd Rioux

MEG, JO, BETH, AMY by Anna Boyd Rioux offers a fascinating look at the history and characters from Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women as that book approaches its sesquicentennial. This is a scholarly work where Rioux, a professor at the University of New Orleans, provides helpful background on Alcott’s life and outlines some of the origins for and the parallels with characters in her classic novel. Providing ample examples and analyses, Rioux encourages readers to question whether Little Woman is a “rebellious tale of one young woman’s resistance to the restrictions of her era, or a dispiriting portrait of her capitulation to the status quo.” Rioux definitely laments the idea that Alcott’s novel is rarely taught in schools today; in fact, she subtitles her study “The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters” and describes Alcott’s book as “a fable of growing up female.” The potentially controversial feminist interpretation, preference for contemporary texts and concerns about a crisis in boys’ reading are all reasons that Rioux cites for fewer classroom lessons on Little Women.

Rioux calls Little Women “the most widely beloved story of girlhood” and says “what appears to be a sweet, light story of four girls growing up is also very much about how hard it was (and is) to come of age in a culture that prizes a woman’s appearance over her substance.” Additional perspective on MEG, JO, BETH, AMY is provided by Wall Street Journal reviewer Meghan Cox Gurdon whose own book, The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction will be available early next year. Both Booklist and Library Journal gave Rioux’s MEG, JO, BETH, AMY starred reviews.

From Holmes to Sherlock by Mattias Bostrom

FROM HOLMES TO SHERLOCK by Mattias Bostrom is an impressive work of scholarship on an iconic character and his creators. This book contains 111 chapters, plus footnotes and a bibliography that together span about 70 pages.  While there is an extensive index, there is no separate table of contents although the book is split into eight parts covering 1878 to 2016 and allowing true fans to enjoy the many, many details in relative chronological order or to simply focus on sampling a period of interest. Also included are eight pages of color photographs picturing Arthur Conan Doyle, Joseph Bell, William Gillette, and various celebrities who have portrayed Sherlock Holmes. Bostrom is a member of the Baker Street Irregulars and a recognized expert on his subject. FROM HOLMES TO SHERLOCK won the nonfiction award from the Swedish Crime Writers Academy and received a starred review from Booklist. 

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.