San Antonio College Library

What should children read? As children's literature authority Leonard S. Marcus shows, that question created a rambunctious children's book publishing scene in colonial times, and went on to fuel the transformation of twentieth-century children's book publishing from genteel backwater to big business. Marcus delivers a provocative look at the fierce turf wars fought among pioneering editors, progressive educators, and librarians throughout the twentieth...

Provides a critical examination of the work of the American author of children's books.

"Since it was first introduced over a hundred years ago in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum's world of Oz has become one of the most enduring and beloved creations in children's literature. It has influenced numerous prominent writers and intellectuals and become a lasting part of the culture itself." "In this adult biography of Baum, Katharine M. Rogers discusses some of the aspects that made his work unique and have likely contributed to...

"Dr. Seuss: American Icon examines one of the most influential authors and artists of the 20th century: Theodor Seuss Geisel, best known as "Dr. Seuss." Here, Philip Nel takes a fascinating look into the key aspects of Seuss's career - his poetry, politics, art, marketing, and place in the popular imagination." "Nel argues convincingly that Dr. Seuss is one of the most influential poets in America. His nonsense verse, like that of Lewis Carroll and...

Raising key questions about race, class, sexuality, age, material culture, intellectual history, pedagogy, and gender, this book explores the myriad relationships between feminist thinking and Little Women, a novel that has touched many women's lives. A critical introduction traces 130 years of popular and critical response, and the collection presents 11 new essays, two new bibliographies, and reprints of six classic essays. The contributors examine...

"Deborah C. De Rosa examines the multifaceted nature of domestic abolitionism, a discourse that nineteenth-century women created to voice their political sentiments when cultural imperatives demanded their silence. For nineteenth-century women struggling to find an abolitionist voice while maintaining the codes of gender and respectability, writing children's literature was an acceptable strategy to counteract the opposition. By seizing the opportunity...

The author examines the writing of the Little House books and "explores the relationship between mother and daughter working as collaborative authors and calls into question our assumptions about plot, juvenile fiction, and constructions of gender on the nineteenth century frontier and in the Depression years when the Little House books were written."--Cover.

This book on Laura Ingalls Wilder and her popular series of children's novels springs from the premise that history and literature are closely intertwined and that each has much to contribute to the other. The reader of literature will understand it better and enjoy it more by placing it in historical context. In like manner, the student of history can learn much about past people, places, and actions by viewing them in the light of imaginative literature...