Agnes Perkins

Alethea K. Helbig

Celebrating the wealth of quality multicultural literature recently published for children and young adults, this valuable resource examines the fiction, oral tradition, and poetry from four major ethnic groups in the United States. Each of these genres is considered in turn for the literature dealing with African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native-American Indians. Taking up where their earlier volume This Land is Our Land left off, Helbig and Perkins have teamed up once again to identify and expertly evaluate more than 500 multicultural books published from 1994 through 1999. Both considered authorities in the field of children's literature, the two of them personally selected, read, and evaluated all the books included here. Their insightful annotations help readers carefully consider both literary standards such as plot development, characterization, and style, as well as cultural values as they are represented in these cited works. Each entry also indicates the suggested age and grade level appropriateness of the work. With the proliferation and ever increasing popularity of multicultural literature for children and young adults, this sensitively written volume will serve as an invaluable collection development tool. Teachers, as well as librarians, will find the comprehensiveness and organization of this bibliography helpful as a guide in selecting appropriate materials for classroom use. Even students will find this book easy to use, with its five indexes identifying works by title, writer, illustrator, grade level, and subject. Public libraries and school media centers will find much use for Many Peoples, One Land.

A Guide to New Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults

Many Peoples, One Land

Agnes Regan Perkins

A supplement to two earlier volumes on American children's fiction from 1859 to 1984, this new dictionary, the first of a projected series of five-year updates, covers 134 award-winning books published from 1985 to 1989 with detailed factual material and insightful critical appraisal. Included in the more than 400 entries are book title entries, which provide plot summary and literary analysis; author entries, which stress major contributions to children's literature and significant biographical facts; character entries, which identify and describe memorable characters and analyze characterization; and miscellaneous entries on certain settings and other elements needing additional explanation. An appendix classifies the books under major awards given for the period in question. The extensive index, while providing access to specific names and terms, also identifies broad themes and subjects relating to fictional genres, narrative structures, and elements of style and tone. Taken together with its predecessors, this volume will be valuable for use in university, school, and public libraries, and by librarians, educators, parents, and scholars of children's literature and American culture.

Alethea K. Helbig

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