Choosing Books for Children: A Commonsense Guide - Hardcover

Hearne, Betsy Gould; Stevenson, Deborah

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0252025164 ISBN 13: 9780252025167

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 1999

Synopsis

If you have ever stood in the children's section of a bookstore or library wondering how to go about matching a book to the age, abilities, and interests of a particular child, "Choosing Children's Books" is for you. Renowned children's librarian and children's book review editor Betsy Hearne offers practical guidance on sorting through the bewildering array of picture books, pop-up books, books for beginning readers, young adult titles, classics, poetry, folktales, and factual books. Each chapter includes an annotated list of recommended titles. A gold mine of commonsense, sound advice, this newly revised and completely updated edition of Betsy Hearne's classic guide is an indispensable tool for choosing books for children of all ages. Newly available in paperback, this revised and updated third edition of Betsy Hearne's classic guide stands as the lodestar for navigating through the bewildering array of books for young readers. Hearne surveys everything from picture books, pop-up books, classics, and books for beginning readers to young adult titles, poetry, folktales, and factual books, with an annotated list of recommended titles accompanying each chapter. A gold mine of common sense and sound advice, her guide remains an indispensable tool for choosing books for children of all ages.

About this title

Review

"Excellent guidebook to children's books... Like the earlier editions (1981, 1990), this revision offers articulate, authoritative, and thought-provoking discussions of the books and the issues surrounding them, as well as solid bibliographies and advice on choosing books and introducing them to young people. Librarians will want to update their parenting collections with this friendly, reliable guide to the world of children's literature." - Booklist "A parent- and child-friendly introduction to the art of understanding and selecting children's books." -- The Horn Book "The ideal guide to the best that children's literature has to offer." -- Reader's Edge FROM REVIEWS OF THE SECOND EDITION "To the skeptical, Betsy Hearne's sunny assertion that 'with a little time and interest, anyone can be a first-class, four-star, triple-A children's book connoisseur' may seem moot. But few would deny that this expanded and updated edition of her common-sense guide to choosing books for children remains ... a reliable source of direction for parents perplexed by the publication of too many titles and worried that they don't know how to choose... With a copy of Ms. Hearne's splendid book up one's sleeve, becoming that triple-A connoisseur is no trick at all." - Michael Cart, New York Times Book Review "This compact, superbly reliable handbook is the best of its kind." - Booklist "This is a wonderful, wise book ... [Hearne's] is a passionate voice that calls for the child to read, and for the adult to become a part of that process... An invaluable guide." -- Library Materials Guide "The discussions and the selection of titles are marked by impeccable taste, steady sure wisdom, and years of reading and thinking about children's books. This book, with its graceful, witty prose, is sheer joy from beginning to end." -- Horn Book Magazine

About the Author

Betsy Hearne is the author of several acclaimed books for teens and for young readers, including The Canine Connection: Stories about Dogs and People; Wishes, Kisses, and Pigs; and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book Seven Brave Women. She is a noted children's book reviewer and scholar who teaches folklore and storytelling at the University of Illinois. Betsy Hearne lives in Urbana, Illinois, but has spent every summer for more than twenty years in the village of Kilcrohane, County Cork, Ireland. These stories are partly drawn from that experience and partly made up out of very thin air.

Deborah Stevenson has a PhD in Sociology and is currently Deputy Director of the Cultural Industries and Practices Research Centre at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Her books include Art and Orgnisation: Making Australian Cultural Policy (2000), Agendas in Place: Cultural Planning for Cities and Regions (1998), and Planning the 'Creative City' (forthcoming 2003)

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0252025164
• ISBN 13: 9780252025167
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 248