Through the Looking Glass: Further Adventures and Misadventures in the Realm of Children's LiteratureA writer & CRITIC with a broad grasp of her subject, an acute eye for talent (and occasionally genius), and a sure prose style, Selma Lanes is our grande dame of children's literature. She wrote the definitive book on Maurice Sendak. She has contributed countless articles on the primary protagonists and players in the field, many published in her previous book, Down the Rabbit Hole. This new collection includes further essays on the masters she most admires: Sendak, Steig, Gorey, L. Frank Baum, Tomi Ungerer, Jack Keats, Margot Zemach, and one editor of genius, Ursula Nordstrom. What concerns Lanes most is the integration of text and image, the abilities of authors and artists of picture books to somehow change our perceptions. In a larger sense, she asks, What makes some children's books work and others fail? How does art for the young reflect, distort or create a social perspective? Earlier she observed, With the possible exception of advertising and film, no popular medium in our time has been as experimental, inventive, and simply alive as children's books. In the present atmosphere of mergers and corporate conglomerates that now define mainstream publishing, she wonders if this remains true. Is the field still dominated, as formerly, by a devoted cadre of geniuses able to spot and encourage talent, willing to take risks, and ferocious in their desire to bring children the best that authors and illustrators have to offer? This book provides her answers, as well as affectionate salutes to the writers and artists whose work deserves to be remembered. |
Contents
On Judging | 38 |
Pictures at Two Exhibitions45 | 45 |
SEVEN | 62 |
William Steig | 120 |
Odes to Two Craftsmen | 135 |
FOURTEEN | 149 |
E B White and Read All Over | 155 |
SEVENTEEN | 165 |
PC or Not to Be?177 | 177 |
TWENTY | 189 |
Songs of Praise | 205 |
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admirable adult American animal artist audience baby Baum Beatrix Potter beautiful biography book illustrators book's Boutet Caldecott career characters charm chil child childhood children's books children's literature children's picture books color Copyright Danish Dear Mili Doctor Dolittle Dolittle drawings dren's early edition editor English Ezra Jack Keats fairy tale fantasy father feel fiction Five Chinese Brothers Frank Baum gift girls Gorey Gorey's graphic Grimm Hans Christian Andersen happy Harry hero heroine Higglety Pigglety Pop Hogwarts human imagination Jack letter Lillian Gish literary living look magazine magic Margot Zemach Maurice Sendak mother never Night Kitchen novel painting parents picture book published reader realistic reality Review Riverside Rowling's says sense Shepard sister Steig stories tell tion translation truth turn Ungerer Ungerer's Ursula Nordstrom watercolor Wild Things wonder words write Yankee Doodle young Zemach