Philip Nel

Racism is resilient, duplicitous, and endlessly adaptable, so it is no surprise that America is again in a period of civil rights activism. A significant reason racism endures is because it is structural: it's embedded in culture and in institutions. One of the places that racism hides-and thus perhaps the best place to oppose it-is books for young people. Was the Cat in the Hat Black? presents five serious critiques of the history and current state of children's literature tempestuous relationship with both implicit and explicit forms of racism. The book fearlessly examines topics both vivid-such as The Cat in the Hat's roots in blackface minstrelsy-and more opaque, like how the children's book industry can perpetuate structural racism via whitewashed covers even while making efforts to increase diversity. Rooted in research yet written with a lively, crackling touch, Nel delves into years of literary criticism and recent sociological data in order to show a better way forward. Though much of what is proposed here could be endlessly argued, the knowledge that what we learn in childhood imparts both subtle and explicit lessons about whose lives matter is not debatable. The text concludes with a short and stark proposal of actions everyone-reader, author, publisher, scholar, citizen- can take to fight the biases and prejudices that infect children's literature. While Was the Cat in the Hat Black? does not assume it has all the answers to such a deeply systemic problem, its audacity should stimulate discussion and activism.

The Hidden Racism of Children's Literature, and the Need for Diverse Books

Was the Cat in the Hat Black?

A biography of the book that inspired Prince to adopt purple as his signature color, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Richard Powers to become a writer, and countless other creative people to become artists.

A primer on the art and design of children's picture books, renowned children's literature scholar Philip Nel takes the reader on an illustrated tour through all that made Crockett Johnson's Harold and the Purple Crayon an astonishing from Harold's clear line, Johnson's carefully planned improvisation, the Garamond typeface, the real "Harolds" who inspired the title character, how Johnson overcame his editor's initially lukewarm reaction, to the role of the book's three colors (purple, brown, white), and whether or not the tan-hued Harold himself is a child of color.

In a series of microhistories that ripple outward from Harold and the Purple Crayon, 30 brief chapters explore the big ideas behind this small book. Johnson's classic raises questions about the nature of reality; creative expression during the Cold War; the implied audience of children's literature; abstract art versus representational art; and the color of crayons, ink, and people. All of these questions depend upon how children's picture books work--in this case, the apparent invisibility of Johnson's design choices, the limits imposed by the offset color lithography printing process, the history of the crayon, and the book's circulation into the hands of many real children around the world.

This small book explores the pleasures of looking closely. Indeed, picture books are many people's introduction to looking closely. As a portable gallery, the picture book is a democratic art form, requiring only a library card to view. In modeling the pleasures of sustained attention, this book invites you to look closely at art that interests you--picture books, of course, but any kind of art. When you look, listen, or read closely, what questions does the art invite?

Harold and the Purple Crayon and the Making of a Children's Classic

How to Draw the World

W. E. A. van Beek

Paulus Gijsbertus Johannes Post

The fundamental changes in society and culture are forcing us to reconsider the position of sacred space, and to do this within the broader context of ritual and religious dynamics and what is called a 'spatial turn'. This collection of studies on sacred space concerns itself with both perspectives by exploring place-bound dynamics of the sacred in Africa and Europe. Cultural dynamics, identities and ownership, and contestations are very much interrelated. The essays and cases show that, via these contested fields, identities are always at stake.

Space and Ritual Dynamics in Europe and Africa

Sacred Spaces and Contested Identities

Julia L. Mickenberg

Presents a collection of twentieth-century American leftist children's literature, including contributions from such well-known writers as Dr. Seuss and Julius Lester, and many from less familiar figures.

A Collection of Radical Children's Literature

Tales for Little Rebels

Crockett Johnson (born David Johnson Leisk, 1906-1975) and Ruth Krauss (1901-1993) were a husband-and-wife team that created such popular children's books as The Carrot Seed and How to Make an Earthquake. Separately, Johnson created the enduring children's classic Harold and the Purple Crayon and the groundbreaking comic strip Barnaby. Krauss wrote over a dozen children's books illustrated by others, and pioneered the use of spontaneous, loose-tongued kids in children's literature. Together, Johnson and Krauss's style--whimsical writing, clear and minimalist drawing, and a child's point-of-view--is among the most revered and influential in children's literature and cartooning, inspiring the work of Maurice Sendak, Charles M. Schulz, Chris Van Allsburg, and Jon Scieszka. This critical biography examines their lives and careers, including their separate achievements when not collaborating. Using correspondence, sketches, contemporary newspaper and magazine accounts, archived and personal interviews, author Philip Nel draws a compelling portrait of a couple whose output encompassed children's literature, comics, graphic design, and the fine arts. Their mentorship of now-famous illustrator Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are) is examined at length, as is the couple's appeal to adult contemporaries such as Duke Ellington and Dorothy Parker. Defiantly leftist in an era of McCarthyism and Cold War paranoia, Johnson and Krauss risked collaborations that often contained subtly rendered liberal themes. Indeed, they were under FBI surveillance for years. Their legacy of considerable success invites readers to dream and to imagine, drawing paths that take them anywhere they want to go.

How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children's Literature

Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss

Lissa Paul

The study of children's literature and culture has been experiencing a renaissance, with vital new work proliferating across many areas of interest. Mapping this vibrant scholarship, this work presents 49 original essays on the essential terms and concepts of the field with scope, clarity, and interdisciplinary play between concepts. From Aesthetics to Young Adult, a multidisciplinary cast of scholars explores the vocabulary central to the study of children's literature. Following the growth of his or her word, each author traces its branching uses and meanings, often into unfamiliar disciplinary territories. Award-winning novelist Philip Pullman writes about Intentionality, Education expert Margaret Meek Spencer addresses Reading, literary scholar Peter Hunt historicizes Children's Literature, Psychologist Hugh Crago examines Story, librarian and founder of the influential Child Lit litserv Michael Joseph investigates Liminality. In the spirit of Raymond Williams' seminal Keywords, this book is a snapshot of a vocabulary of children's literature that is changing, expanding, and ever unfinished.

Keywords for Children’s Literature

The study of children’s literature and culture has been experiencing a renaissance, with vital new work proliferating across many areas of interest. Mapping this vibrant scholarship, Keywords for Children’s Literature presents 49 original essays on the essential terms and concepts of the field. From Aesthetics to Young Adult, an impressive, multidisciplinary cast of scholars explores the vocabulary central to the study of children's literature. Following the growth of his or her word, each author traces its branching uses and meanings, often into unfamiliar disciplinary territories: Award-winning novelist Philip Pullman writes about Intentionality, Education expert Margaret Meek Spencer addresses Reading, literary scholar Peter Hunt historicizes Children’s Literature, Psychologist Hugh Crago examines Story, librarian and founder of the influential Child_Lit litserv Michael Joseph investigates Liminality. The scope, clarity, and interdisciplinary play between concepts make this collection essential reading for all scholars in the field. In the spirit of Raymond Williams’ seminal Keywords, this book is a snapshot of a vocabulary of children’s literature that is changing, expanding, and ever unfinished.

Walter Carlsnaes

Institute for Global Dialogue

Foreign policy is widely regarded as one of the post-apartheid government's major areas of achievement, yet remains one of the most challenging. In this volume, leading scholars provide critical assessments of the conduct of South African foreign policy since 1994 against the background of six principles articulated by Nelson Mandela in a celebrated article published in the journal Foreign Affairs in 1993. While South African foreign policy has become wide-ranging and complex, these reflective contributions demonstrate a remarkable adherence to these principles. Aimed at stimulating thinking among policy-makers, analysts, and students, this volume will rank as one of the most authoritative analyses, and one of the most complete intellectual records, of South Africa's foreign policy during the crucial first decade following its transition to democracy.

South African Foreign Policy After Apartheid

In Full Flight

Examines the lives and careers of the husband and wife children's book authors who embraced their leftist beliefs in the era of McCarthyism and in the midst of the Cold War and who were the targets of FBI surveillance for years.

Philip Nel takes a fascinating look into the key aspects of Seuss's career - his poetry, politics, art, marketing, and place in the popular imagination." "Nel argues convincingly that Dr. Seuss is one of the most influential poets in America. His nonsense verse, like that of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, has changed language itself, giving us new words like "nerd." And Seuss's famously loopy artistic style - what Nel terms an "energetic cartoon surrealism" - has been equally important, inspiring artists like filmmaker Tim Burton and illustrator Lane Smith. --from back cover

American Icon

Dr. Seuss

Nina Christensen

Introduces key terms, global concepts, debates, and histories for Children's Literature in an updated edition Over the past decade, there has been a proliferation of exciting new work across many areas of children’s literature and culture. Mapping this vibrant scholarship, the Second Edition of Keywords for Children’s Literature presents original essays on essential terms and concepts in the field. Covering ideas from “Aesthetics” to “Voice,” an impressive multidisciplinary cast of scholars explores and expands on the vocabulary central to the study of children’s literature. The second edition of this Keywords volume goes beyond disciplinary and national boundaries. Across fifty-nine print essays and nineteen online essays, it includes contributors from twelve countries and an international advisory board from over a dozen more. The fully revised and updated selection of critical writing—more than half of the essays are new to this edition—reflects an intentionally multinational perspective, taking into account non-English traditions and what childhood looks like in an age of globalization. All authors trace their keyword’s uses and meanings: from translation to poetry, taboo to diversity, and trauma to nostalgia, the book’s scope, clarity, and interdisciplinary play between concepts make this new edition of Keywords for Children’s Literature essential reading for scholars and students alike.

Keywords for Children's Literature, Second Edition

Explores the themes found in the novels, provides information about reviews of the novels, and includes information about the life of J.K. Rowling.

Philip Nel

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