This is a bibliography for books about children's books. For useful websites and blog links see the home page side bar, or individual book posts. Literary criticism by subject is detailed below.
Firstly, if you're teaching literature to bright children and your own background does not include a literature degree then you should brush up on the basics. Securing your own knowledge will improve your confidence when dealing with the endless open questions beginning, "But what if.." that bright children and teens will throw at you. Scroll to the end of the main bibliography for an overview of helpful texts.
Searching this page: Hitting F whilst holding down the control button (Command F, I believe, on a Mac) should bring up a search box which you can use to search for keywords, author's surnames, eg gender, religion, langauge, Tolkien, etc.
Main Bibliography:
Biographies of Children's Authors
Carpenter, Humphrey , The Inklings: C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien and Their Friends
Chitty, Susan: Anna Sewell: the Woman Who Wrote Black Beauty Stroud: Tempus, 2007 ISBN 9780752442822
Briggs, Julia, A Woman of Passion: E. Nesbit Stroud: Tempus, 2007 ISBN 9780752442549
Green, Roger Lancelyn, and Walter Hooper: C. S. Lewis: A Biography
Meigs, Corneila: The Story of Louisa Alcott London: Harrap, 1935
Childhood in adult literature and our wider culture
Ariès, Philippe, Centuries Of Childhood
Cunningham, Hugh , Children and Childhood in Western Society Since 1500 
Gavin, Adrienne E. (editor), The Child in British Literature: Literary Constructions of Childhood, Medieval to Contemporary Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012 ISBN 9780230348271
Lesnik-Oberstein, Karín , Children in Culture, Revisited: Further Approaches to Childhood Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011 ISBN 9780230275546
Fairy Tales Critiques
Warner, Marina , From The Beast To The Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers
Gender in Children's Literature
Hateley, Erica , Shakespeare in Children's Literature: Gender and Cultural Capital, London: Routledge, 2010 ISBN 9780415888882
Lyon Clark, Beverly, Margaret R. Higonnet (Editors), Girls, Boys, Books, Toys: Gender in Children's Literature and Culture
Lehr, Susan S., Beauty, Brains and Brawn: The Construction of Gender in Children's Literature
Sunderland, Jane, Language, Gender and Children's Fiction London: Continuum, 2012
General Criticism of Children's Literature and Books of Essays
Avery, Gillian and Julia Briggs (editors), Children and their Books: A Celebration of the Work of Iona and Peter Opie
Butler, Catherine and Hallie O'Donovan, Reading History in Children's Books Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012 ISBN 9780230278080 A study of historical fiction for children.
Butler, Francelia (editor), Children`s Literature : Volume 16 Annual of the Modern Language Association Division on Children's Literature Association - Includes 5 articles on Kenneth Graham and The Wind in the Willows. Other writers discussed include Randall Jarrell, Beatrix Potter, Frances Hodgson Burnett and Lewis Carroll. Yale University Press, 1988. ISBN 9780300041934
Grenby, Matthew O. and Kimberley Reynolds (editors) Children's Literature Studies: A Research Handbook Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011 ISBN 9780230525542
Gubar, Marah Artful Dodgers: Reconceiving the Golden Age of Children's Literature, OUP USA, 2009 ISBN 9780195336252 Considers concepts of childhood innocence and arrested development particularly in the work of Lewis Carroll, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and J. M. Barrie.
Hunt, Peter (editor), Literature For Children: Contemporary Criticism
Hunt, Peter (editor), Understanding Children's Literature: Second Edition London: Routledge, 2005 ISBN 0415375460 Second edition includes four new essays.
Maybin, Janet and Nicola J. Watson (editors), Children's Literature: Approaches and Territories Basingsstoke: Palgrave Macmillan /The Open University, 2009 ISBN 9780230227132
Rose, Jacqueline, The Case of Peter Pan: Or the Impossibility of Children's Fiction University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992 ISBN 0812214358
Genres of Children's Literature
Badger, Jane: Heroines on Horseback: The Pony Book in Children's Fiction
Butler, Catherine and Hallie O'Donovan, Reading History in Children's Books Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012 ISBN 9780230278080 A study of historical fiction for children.
Gavin, Adrienne E. and Christopher Routledge (editors), Mystery in Children's Literature: From the Rational to the Supernatural, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001 Out of print but available POD from the publisher and secondhand.
McCallum, Alison: The Chalet School Encyclopedia Volume 1 Three further volumes are scheduled for publication in 2014, 2015 and 2016
Routledge, Christopher, 'Crime and Detective Literature for Young Readers' in A Companion to Crime Fiction, edited by Charles Rzepka and Lee Horsley, Oxford: Blackwell, 2010. This excellent essay is also available under a creative commons licence on the author's website.
Thomas, Tig: True to the Trefoil - essays on Girl Guiding in children's fiction and annuals.
Gothic Children's Literature
Gavin, Adrienne E. and Christopher Routledge (editors), Mystery in Children's Literature: From the Rational to the Supernatural, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001 Out of print but available POD from the publisher and secondhand
Pepetone, Gregory G. , Hogwarts and All: Gothic Perspectives on Children's Literature Oxford: Peter Lang, 2012 ISBN 9781433100604
History of Children's Books
Badger, Jane: Heroines on Horseback: The Pony Book in Children's Fiction
Bodger, Joan, How the Heather Looks: A Joyous Journey to the British Sources of Children's Books Toronto: Emblem Editions, 2010 ISBN 9780771011290
Carpenter, Humphrey , Secret Gardens: A Study of the Golden Age of Children's Literature
Hunt, Peter, An Introduction to Children's Literature (OPUS)
Hurlimann, Bettina: Three Centuries of Children's Books in Europe
Meigs, Corneila with Elizabeth Nesbitt, Anne Eaton and Ruth Hill Viguers: A Critical History of Children's Literature A Survey of Children's Books in English from Earliest Times to the Present
Reynolds, Kimberly, Children's Literature: A Very Short Introduction Oxford: OUP, 2011 ISBN 9780199560240
Illustrators of Children's Books
Chandler, Arthur R.: The Story of E. H. Shepard: The Man Who Drew Pooh
Reference Books, Guides, Encyclopaedia, etc
Carpenter, Humphrey and Mari Prichard (editors), Oxford Companion to Children's Literature Oxford, OUP, 1999 ISBN 9780198602286 Available as POD from the publisher, or secondhand.
Duriez, Colin: A Field Guide to Narnia
Grenby, M. O. and Andrea Immel (Editors), The Cambridge Companion to Children's Literature Cambridge, CUP, 2009 ISBN 9780521687829
McCallum, Alison: The Chalet School Encyclopedia Volume 1 Three further volumes are scheduled for publication in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
Mickenberg, Julia and Lynne Vallone (editors), Oxford Handbook of Children's Literature, OUP USA, 2011 ISBN 9780195379785
Rudd, David , The Routledge Companion to Children's Literature London: Routledge, 2010 ISBN 9780415472715
Religion in Children's Literature
Cutt, Margaret Nancy, Ministering Angels: A Study of Nineteenth-century Evangelical Writing for Children
Heywood, Sophie , Catholicism and Children's Literature in France: The Comtesse De Segur, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011
Specific Writers and Series
Duriez, Colin: A Field Guide to Narnia
Routledge, Christopher, 'Harry Potter and the Mystery of Ordinary Life' in Mystery in Children's Literature: From the Rational to the Supernatural, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001 edited by Adrienne E. Gavin and Christopher Routledge. Out of print but available POD from the publisher and secondhand. Covers only the first three books and is one of the first academic peices published on the Harry Potter series. This essay is also available under a creative commons licence on the author's website.
An Overview of Literary Studies:
The following are fairly easy introductions to why we study literature, and what you look for when you read. When I say easy, I am assuming that you're a graduate in something else and /or someone with a very good reading ability.
It is an old fashioned thought but acquire a physical copy of The Oxford Guide to English Literature (currently edited by Dinah Birch) and keep it by your favourite chair and browse it a lot. There is no pleasanter way to get an overview of English Literature into your head.
The following are rather dated, and have limitations, but are still excellent starting points:
Aspects of the Novel by E. M. Forster
The Craft of Fiction by Percy Lubbock
Narrative Fiction by Shlomith Rimon Kenan is much more recent and deals with literary theory as it pertains to the novel. It is by no means essential reading but if you are finding the concept of the novel interesting and want to secure your grasp a bit further it is excellent. I read it as a first year undergraduate (so straight after A levels) and it was not too challenging and you can apply what you get from it to children's novels such as Charlotte Sometimes.
For poetry, which book groups tend to read less of, rightly or wrongly, I would get a couple of the how to write poetry style guides. Churning out few poems yourself, however badly, will aid your understanding no end.
A few good ones include:
Fenton, James, An Introduction to English Poetry
Fry, Stephen, The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within
© 2013 C L Hawley
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