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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 070.5083
EAN num: 9780395674079
ISBN number: 0395674077
Label: Houghton Mifflin
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 416
Printing Date: May 07, 2008
Publishing house: Houghton Mifflin
Sale Popularity Level: 96257
Studio: Houghton Mifflin
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Product Description:
An animated first-time history of the visionaries--editors, authors, librarians, booksellers, and others--whose passion for books has transformed American childhood and American culture
What should children read? As the preeminent children's literature authority, Leonard S. Marcus, shows incisively, that's the three-hundred-year-old question that sparked the creation of a rambunctious children's book publishing scene in Colonial times. And it's the urgent issue that went on to fuel the transformation of twentieth-century children's book publishing from a genteel backwater to big business.
Marcus delivers a provocative look at the fierce turf wars fought among pioneering editors, progressive educators, and librarians--most of them women--throughout the twentieth century. His story of the emergence and growth of the major publishing houses--and of the distinctive literature for the young they shaped--gains extraordinary depth (and occasional dish) through the author's path-finding research and in-depth interviews with dozens of editors, artists, and other key publishing figures whose careers go back to the 1930s, including Maurice Sendak, Ursula Nordstrom, Margaret K. McElderry, and Margret Rey.
From The New England Primer to The Cat in the Hat to Cormier's The Chocolate War, Marcus offers a richly informed, witty appraisal of the pivotal books that transformed children's book publishing, and brings alive the revealing synergy between books like these and the national mood of their times.
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Rated by buyers 
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Discussing the history of printers, publishers and editors in the field of Children's Literature, Marcus gives the reader a trip back in time to see the thinking and politics that created the world of Children's Literature that we work with and enjoy today. The inside view of the spheres of influence, prove to be both interesting and informative. I only regret that Marcus did not choose to include some of the early illustrations that were the foundation for today's picture book art.
Rated by buyers 
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If you are interested in literature, and history, and writing for children, and reading by children, and life, you should like this book. I did. Mr. Marcus has provided historical context for the industry of children's literature. In so doing, he has provided a place in the larger scheme of things, for all of those who support the making of literature which children, and wise adults, may enjoy. Thank you Mr. Marcus
Rated by buyers -
Leonard marcus has done it again. This book should be on the shelf of every lover of children's literature.
Rated by buyers -
This is a review certainly, but it is also a look at how librarians fit within Marcus's take on the publishing industry, past and present. When you are aware of your own personal worldview, it makes sense to interpret the books that fall into your lap with that view at the forefront of your mind. FYI.
Beware setting yourself up as a guardian of the moral and cultural growth of children, for lo thou shalt be kicked in the rear historically as a result. As a children's librarian there's a wide swath of literature out there that looks at literature for kids from a historical perspective. Librarians, as it happens, are often very good at writing books about the things that they love. If they happen to love titles for the short set (and whatever you do, don't call it kid lit!) so be it. And thus it has been and thus it would continue to be if it weren't for other scholars in the field like Leonard Marcus. Mr. Marcus has, in a sense, made a career out of filling in the gaps that librarians have left in the field. Examinations of the Little Golden Books as with his book, Golden Legacy: How Golden Books Won Children's Hearts, Changed Publishing Forever, and Became An American Icon Along the Way or the collected letters of editor Ursula Nordstrom in Dear Genius. And so I find myself in a mighty odd position as I read his newest title, "Minders of Make-Believe". I cannot help but recognize that children's librarianship as it exists yesterday has changed significantly since the days of Anne Carroll Moore and Frances Clark Sayers. That said Marcus's book, a brilliant piece and required reading for anyone in the field, sometimes proves a bitter pill for someone like me to swallow. Dishing up the dirt and setting the record straight, it's best for librarians like myself to learn from our illustrious past and find a way to continue to set literary standards so that we can avoid becoming an arbitrary footnote in collections like this particular one.
The history of America and the history of children's books begin at practically the same point. Charting the growth of the American publishing industry and the very notion of the children's book as object, "Minders" tackles the didacticism of early efforts alongside the literary growth on the business side of the equation. Marcus charts the shift from America's reliance on British children's fare to its love affair with homegrown authors and illustrators. Familiar names begin to appear, and familiar authors as well. Drawing upon the input of librarians, booksellers, publishers, authors, illustrators, and really anyone with a finger in the children's publication pie, "Minders of Make-Believe" is the most compelling story imaginable, if your heart lies with the birth of American children's picture book creation.
Marcus's readability is his forte. I'm no academic, and authors that write convoluted sentences for the sake of the sentences themselves bother me. There is nothing that Leonard Marcus writes, however, that does not belong in this book. His smallest statements kick home his messages. "Even timeless books . . . are books of their time." "Not all children's books are children's literature..." On top of that, he's pulling out constant surprises. Things that I should have known but didn't appeared like little delicious jewels in the book. The very first children's book to feature child protagonists? James Janeway's, A Token For Children. Mother Goose's "early British rivals"? They included Gammer Gurton, Tom Thumb, and Nurse Lovechild. Librarians, booksellers, and publishers alike will be intrigued to learn that advance copies of books were not sent to reviewers in the days of May Massee, but were secured on loan instead. My previous belief that the Caldecott Medal was almost named the Brooke Medal after L. Leslie Brooke turned out to merely be a case of Anne Carroll Moore just throwing a wrench in the award committee's works for kicks. Who knew that there was a controversy surrounding Garth Williams's soft and sweet The Rabbits' Wedding because it involved the marriage of a white rabbit to a grey rabbit? Or, on a different lapin note, that the ad campaign for Pat the Bunny was "For Whom the Bell Tolls is magnificent - but it hasn't any bunny in it." And the book is just jam-packed with names so delectable and delicious that an author in search of character names would have an abundance to choose from. Monikers like Algernon Swinburne, Melancthon Montgomery Hurd, Oliver Optic, and so on.
Marcus does an excellent job of winnowing down great swaths of information to suit his themes and talking points. A good historian can mention a detail or fact and make you want to know more and more. For example, I was intrigued by the frequency of the Quakers and their role in early American printing. It would be off-topic for Marcus to comment on this fact, but that won't stop me from seeking more information ... Read More
Rated by buyers -
Having been a schoolteacher now for the past eighteen years, children's literature has been a mainstay of my profesion. Choosing the literature you read and use with your children is of prime importance. Most of the time, I elect to use books that are not only entertaining, but rich with lessons or thoughts that inspire deeper thinking. "Minders of Make Believe" is a treasure trove of history behind children's literature in our country, and the debate between instructive and entertaining.
Leonard Marcus' interesting recount of the history of children's literature literally begins with the founding of our country, and the very first "books" produced for children, starting with "The New England Primer". Two camps formed; should our kiddie lit teach or amuse? Marcus traces the development through the years, including some fascinating information on authors like Dr. Seuss (and his revolutionary Cat in the Hat), and Maurice Sendak.
I've always chosen books that essentially come from both camps. If I am going to spend time with a story or book in my class, it has to have some "meat" to it's tale to make it worth my time. It must also be interesting enough to children for them to want to devour that meat. After reading Marcus' fascinating book, I don't think I'll ever feast on another children's book in exactly the same way again!
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