Children’s Books and Their Creators

Unique in its cov­er­age of con­tem­po­rary Amer­i­can chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture, Chil­dren’s Books and Their Cre­ators is a time­ly sin­gle-vol­ume ref­er­ence cov­er­ing the books our chil­dren are — or could be — read­ing now, from board books to young adult novels.

Entries by near­ly 200 experts inform and guide read­ers about every aspect of chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture. What pic­ture books best sat­is­fy chil­dren’s curios­i­ty and cap­ture their imag­i­na­tions? When should chil­dren be intro­duced to sci­ence and poet­ry? Should par­ents wor­ry if their teenagers read thrillers and comics?

Chil­dren’s Books and Their Cre­ators includes overviews such as “Easy Read­ers,” “Sports Sto­ries,” and “Holo­caust Lit­er­a­ture for Chil­dren,” as well as entries on cre­ators such as Judy Blume, Dr. Seuss, and Chris Van Alls­burg. Reflect­ing the flour­ish­ing state of mul­ti­cul­tur­al pub­lish­ing, the book fea­tures con­tri­bu­tions by and about Native Amer­i­can, African Amer­i­can, Lati­no, and Asian Amer­i­can writ­ers, includ­ing Michael Dor­ris, Vir­ginia Hamil­ton, Gary Soto, and Allen Say.

This vol­ume is enhanced by more than 175 illus­tra­tions in both black-and-white and col­or, fea­tur­ing the work of Mau­rice Sendak, Edward Gorey, Robert McCloskey, David Macauley, and others.