The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature: The Traditions in English, College Textbook Edition Book

This book has everything. It gives history associated with children's literature generally, with the specific stories (the different versions of "Little Red Riding Hood," for example, are a fascinating study), and even with the content of some specific stories (e.g. the section on alphabet poems describes an older, 24-letter English alphabet). And what a collection! It contains tradition stories, including fairy tales. It contains more modern responses to these fairy tales, such as parodies and cynical, worldly retellings. Its collection of literature includes humor and serious works. It includes poetry, prose, plays, and picture books (and yes, the actual pages of the picture books are reproduced as images, so the readers can see more than just the text). It even has a section of full-color pictures. It includes many works that I recall from my own childhood, and it grounds them in context so that I can better understand their history and their context in the canon.

This book brings me joy.

Fantastic fat tome I will never be able to finish with only four renewals from the library. There's so much here. Poetry, samples of comics, whole stories, long analyses of fairy tale, fable, and more. This book is like a museum of children's literature. Too much to digest. There are also a few landmines in that they take the neutral academic road and include some of the latest styles of kid lit that are gross and/or amoral. That was sad to see, but important to know about. Excellent book.