Through the Looking Glass: Further Adventures and Misadventures in the Realm of Children's Literature Book

SELMA LANES is to the picture book what Henry James is to the modern novel, the critic who has most clearly and forcefully put forth an aesthetics of the form. In this new collection of essays, profiles, and reviews, she examines the work of the masters she admires most: Maurice Sendak, William Steig, Edward Gorey, Tomi Ungerer, and Beatrix Potter. She also considers the works of other artists for children -- Hans Christian Andersen, L. Frank Baum, J. K. Rowling, Laura Ingalls Wilder -- and the legacy of a children?s book editor of unusual genius, Ursula Nordstrom, who was ferocious in her desire to bring young readers the best that American writers and illustrators had to offer. Lanes repeatedly asks the essential questions: What makes some books work and others fail? How does art and literature for the young reflect, distort, or create a social perspective? Can the book hold its own in a childhood culture dominated by television, computers, and video games? As always, her answers are, in the words of Publishers Weekly, "articulate . . . thoughtful . . . delectable."Read More