children's literature

Book Reviews

• Esther Averill: Jenny Linsky and the Cat Club
  - stories about a little black cat who lives in New York
• Michael Bird: Vincent's Starry Night and Other Stories
  A Children's History of Art
• Lucy Coats: Atticus the Storyteller's 100 Greek Myths
  - all the favourite stories, adapted for 4-8 year olds
• Ingri D'Aulaire, Edgar Parin D'Aulaire: D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths*
  - one of the outstanding reworkings for children
• Amy Ehrlich: With a Mighty Hand*
  The Story in the Torah
• M.O. Grenby, Andrea Immel: The Cambridge Companion to Children's Literature
  - sixteen essays
• Mark Haddon: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
  - an autistic teenager investigates the murder of a dog
• Daniel Hahn: The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature
  - an encyclopedia covering authors in English and their work
• Peter Hunt: An Introduction to Children's Literature
  - a lively and opinionated history
• Erich Kästner: Emil and the Detectives
  - children bring a thief to justice in Berlin in 1929
• Ursula K. Le Guin: The Earthsea Trilogy**
  A Wizard of Earthsea; The Tombs of Atuan; The Farthest Shore
• Pamela Noensie: Tari: the Little Balinese Dancer*
  - death and the passing on of traditional culture
• Otfried Preussler: The Little Water-Sprite; The Little Witch; The Robber Hotzenplotz; The Little Ghost*
• J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
  - a fine children's fantasy, but somewhat over-hyped
• David Rudd: The Routledge Companion to Children's Literature
  - theory and critical approaches
• Martin Salisbury, Morag Styles: Children's Picturebooks
  The Art of Visual Storytelling
• Rosemary Sutcliff: The Armourer's House
  - an eight year old moves to Henry VIII's London
• Walker Books: Walker Stories*
  - a lovely set of thirty early readers

See also: children's nonfiction

With a child now, I have started reviewing more children's literature, but will probably only write about the books that I consider really outstanding.