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The study of children's books has always been a mixed affair in which reader response and classroom methods jostle with the parameters used by librarians. In recent years, research into children's books has exemplified this well: such research, at home and abroad, has ranged widely in spheres as diverse as sociolinguistics and descriptive bibliography. It has become a major growth area in literary research, and a profitable avenue for personal advancement for entrepreneurs and academics concerned with children and their reading.

The management of children′s literature is a search for value and suitability. Effective policies in library and educational work are based firmly on knowledge of materials, and on the bibliographical and critical frame within which the materials appear and might best be selected. Boundaries, like those between quality and popular books, and between children′s and adult materials, present important challenges for selection, and implicit in this process are professional acumen and judgement. Yet also there are attitudes and systems of values, which can powerfully influence selection on grounds of morality and good taste. To guard against undue subjectivity, the knowledge frame should acknowledge the relevance of social and experiential context for all reading materials, how readers think as well as how they read, and what explicit and implicit agendas the authors have. The good professional takes all these factors on board.

To describe the development of a rubric for identifying diversity in children’s literature to inform literature selection for classroom instruction. Drawing on research literature and data collection reporting the need for increased awareness of the use of diverse children’s literature in elementary and middle school classrooms, we designed and field-tested a rubric for use in identifying diversity in children’s literature. Using constant comparative methods to identify themes in the data, we continually refined the categories in a rubric designed to guide the selection of diverse children’s literature. Content analysis of children’s literature for diverse elements informed the development of the rubric categories. The results of this study produced a field-tested rubric that can be utilized by classroom teachers and researchers to guide their literature selections with the goal of representing increased diversity. Findings demonstrated that a rubric with four clearly defined categories was more user-friendly to classroom teachers, and that applying the rubric when discussing children’s literature led to conversation and collaboration among colleagues. This study demonstrated that the rubric can be applied to literature selections with classroom teachers and can be used to stimulate conversation about diversity in children’s literature as it applies to the classroom context. This chapter’s rubric provides a useful tool for classroom teachers. Teachers can use this tool to assist them in selecting diverse children’s literature for their classrooms. Administrators and literacy coaches can use this rubric as a way to stimulate conversation surrounding diverse children’s literature.

This paper sets out to examine the use of an automatic acquisition plan to acquire international children's award book winners in academic libraries and to offer suggestions for promoting these resources.

The paper examined the vendor's website, vendor‐created spreadsheets detailing award‐winning children's books from 2007‐2009, and book award websites.

The findings show that acquiring international children's award book winners using an automatic acquisition plan is an excellent starting‐point for developing international children's award collections. Featured awards favor works in English. Award books from all continents and regions are not available, but award winners chosen by ethnic and international organizations can be selected to broaden the ethnic and cultural diversity of the resources.

This paper details a beginning point for acquiring and promoting international children's award book winners for academic libraries in order to support multiculturalism and globalism by diversifying curriculum materials collection and providing vital resources for future educators and the larger campus community.

Common Core State Standards Initiative mandates increased readings of informational texts within English Language Arts starting in elementary school. Accurate, age-appropriate, and engaging content is at the center of effective social studies teaching. Textbooks and children’s literature—both literary and informational—are prominent in elementary classrooms because of the esoteric nature of primary source material. Many research projects have investigated historical accuracy and representation within textbooks, but few have done so with children’s trade books. We examined children’s trade books centered on three historical figures frequently incorporated within elementary school curricula: Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, and Helen Keller. Findings revealed various forms of historical misrepresentation and differing levels of historicity. Reporting such lacunae is important for those involved in curricular decisions. We believe children’s books, even those with historical omissions and misrepresentations, provide an unique opportunity for students to incorporate and scrutinize diverse perspectives as they actively assemble historical understandings. All secondary narratives, even historically representative children’s books, can benefit from primary source supplementation. We guide teachers interested in employing relevant and rich primary source material.

Discusses the publication of mediocre quality children's literature. Presents the qualities inherent in classical children's literature. Examines the role and possible motives of the publishing industry for marketing “dumbed down” literature. Evaluates two popular titles. Suggests ways of playing a more active role in promoting high quality children's literature.

Purpose ‐ The purpose of this article is to help those new to the practice of finding international children's books online navigate this exciting if confusing area of reference sources.Design/methodology/approach ‐ This article reviews the International Children's Digital Library that has revolutionized connecting children and books worldwide since 2002. However, there have been organizations busy identifying, evaluating, recommending and keeping lists and annotations of excellent international books for children since the 1940s. This article also reviews resources created by organizations, including the International Youth Library, the International Board on Books for Young People, international book fairs, Banco del Libro and other entities.Findings ‐ The article finds that, there is benefit to be gained from the expansion of international children's book resources into the world of the internet and that those who compiled both types of resource want to connect the world's children with quality literature.Originality/value ‐ This article offers information about historical context, partnerships, and hosting sites that have led to online access to many of these once print only resources. This review of these resources is original as it covers those who originated sources with the shared goal. That goal is their dedication to bring children and books together around the world and to build understanding and solutions together as members of a global community.

A random sample of 216 primary schoolchildren in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, was interviewed with a view to finding out the influence of theme and illustrations on their literature preferences. Results of the study indicated that children preferred books written by Nigerian authors with local themes to western books with alien themes. The influence of illustrations, however, seems to be dominant among primary 1 and 2 pupils (aged 5‐7 years) with a decreasing effect on primary 3 and 4 pupils (aged 7‐9 years) and a minimal effect on primary 5 and 6 pupils (aged 9‐11 years).

CHAUCER HOUSE was opened with due ceremony on May 25th. But not by Mr. Stanley Baldwin; the decision of the Prime Minister the day before that he liked Lossiemouth more than London made Mr. Baldwin's presence at the House of Commons essential. He attended the luncheon at University College, where, we are told, he smoked his famous pipe and made a brief and delightful speech to a company limited to the officers, council and some distinguished guests, including Mrs. Carnegie herself, representatives of the Carnegie United Trust in Lord Elgin, Miss Haldane and Sir Donald MacAlister, as well as Lord Balniel (who, however, is an officer, being Chairman of the Council) and our fine old friend Lawrence Inkster; but lack of space confined the lunch and Mr. Baldwin to that distinguished but very small assembly.