It begins here, or it doesn't begin at all.

It begins here, or it doesn't begin at all. The Newbery and Caldecott Awards: A guide to the medal and honourbooks (2005 edition). Association for Library Service to Children The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) is a division of the American Library Association. Its members are concerned with the profession of children's Librarianship. .Chicago: American Library Association, 2005. 173p US$19.00 (US$17.00 ALAmembers) soft ISBN ISBNabbr.International Standard Book NumberISBNInternational Standard Book NumberISBNn abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m0838935524 This book is a celebration of the American awards forchildren's literature children's literature,writing whose primary audience is children.See also children's book illustration. The Beginnings of Children's LiteratureThe earliest of what came to be regarded as children's literature was first meant for adults. and children's book illustration children's book illustration,any type of picture or decorative work produced for books specifically intended for a youthful audience.Beginnings of a Genre . Itspurpose is to record the distinguished books recognised by these awardsfor over 80 years and to remind librarians and educators of thiscollection. Details of the 2005 Newbery and Caldecott winners are containedwith remarks from the awards committee, revisiting the enthusiasm andexcitement of the selection and announcement at the annual pressconference. Descriptive annotations accompany the summary of each medaland honour book awarded since the inception of the Newbery Award in 1922and the Caldecott in 1938. A final part of this information is thechapter on the media used in Caldecott picture books--the author of thissection suggests that there has been no systematic attempt to list themedia used to create the honoured pictured books; because this scholarlyinformation is useful to the study of children's literature andpart of any analysis of the craftsmanship involved, a work in progresshas begun to fill this void. Accuracy is essential, and thus thissection is a research work in progress which records for posterity thisknowledge gleaned from authors or publishers or from at least twoindependent, reliable sources. Preceding the annotated listings are two interesting articles byacademics in the field of education and library science. The first givesthe history of the two awards together with the changes in definitions,terms and criteria over the years. Far from being dry reading, this isvery informative background for Australasian practitioners who haveheard of the awards over the years. The second article is titled'Literature for youth: a means to the endless', and it movesfrom a discussion of literature as an art form and the expectations ofadults with regard to children's literature to an analysis of thecriticism that much of children's and young adult literaturerepresents the dark side of life. The discussion of the dark themes insome children's literature (death, neglect, loneliness, conflict,bullying, family disharmony dis��har��mo��ny?n.1. Lack of harmony; discord.2. Something not in accord; a conflict: "the disharmonies that assail the most fortunate of mortals"Peter Gay. ) looks back into the classics and the firstchildren's books through to contemporary publications and offersreflection about the mirroring of life and the exposure of therelationships of light and dark and good and evil. This invites seriousreflection. This book should be read by all practitioners in thechildren's librarianship field. The articles are both informativeand provocative, and the annotated entries for each of the award winningtitles make fascinating reading. There are some very famous books inthese lists, and these will be familiar favourites of library staff andtheir communities of children. The section detailing the media used inthe award-winning picture books is similarly interesting, and it isperhaps something that should also be researched for the Australian bookawards. This kind of knowledge becomes increasingly difficult toretrieve as time passes. Heather Fisher, New England Girls' School The New England Girls' School (NEGS), is an independent, Anglican, day and boarding school for girls', located at Armidale, a rural city in northern New South Wales, Australia.