ENGL 5444: CHILDHOOD IN LITERATURE, HISTORY AND CULTURE

Dr. Carolyn Sigler

Click here for the Spring 2010 syllabus

Click here for the Spring 2010 Reading and Assignment Schedule (available Jan. 2010)

Click here for class handouts and supplemental readings

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LINKS TO CHILDHOOD RESOURCES ON THE WEB

 

WRITING AND DOCUMENTATION

• Guide to integrating and citing quotations
• Using literary quotations from the UW Madison Writer's Handbook
• Writing a bibliography using MLA Style
• Using MLA format from the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
• Two Sites on College Writing: Dartmouth Writing Program and University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Handbook . The Dartmouth College Writing Program contains a number of helpful materials, such as some well-written essays that answer the question "What is an academic paper?" and also provide information on researching topics for papers. The site also includes information on such topics as writing about film, writing for sociology courses, and helpful suggestions on writing from fellow students. The second site is offered by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Writing Center and contains material on how best to cite references, avoiding common grammar and punctuation mistakes, a guide to MLA style, as well as information on academic writing and research issues from thesis statements to quoting, paraphrasing and documentation.. Taken together, these sites provide a host of materials that will allow students to become better writers in their various courses during their time in the world of higher education and beyond (Copyright 1994-2005 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
• The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing: This site is the online version of a new writing primer, developed by Michael Harvey (a professor at Washington College in Maryland), that will be of great help to many students who find themselves grappling with writing college-level assignments and papers. The homepage for the guide contains hypertext links to various sections, including those dealing with style, structure, evidence, and paper mechanics. From the main page, students can access any of the primer's many sections quickly, such as those dealing with the use of the historical present, finding a voice, and nominalizations. All of these sections are complemented by a profuse number of examples that illustrate the different writing tools and potential pitfalls that students may encounter (Copyright 1994-2005 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).

LITERARY BACKGROUND AND CRITICISM

• The Internet Public Library Online Literary Criticism Collection:  This literary metasite contains over 1,000 annotated metasites and articles devoted to literary criticism, biographical, and other information about 123 authors from Dante Alighieri to Arthur Miller to William Butler Yeats. The links to criticism information can be to sites or articles (some of which have access restrictions). Visitors can browse the site by author, title, or literary period (for British and American literature). In addition, both a literary criticism guide and a pathfinder are provided for those who wish to further explore web and print resources on the topic (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
• The Voice of the Shuttle literary resources
• Key Literary Terms
• The online Contemporary Authors database contains detailed overviews of the lives and careers of many of the authors in this class.

ELECTRONIC TEXTS

• Project Bartleby
• The Victorian Women Writers Project
• An Online Collection of 19th-Century Schoolbooks
• John Locke's Some Thoughts Concerning Education (c.1693)
• Ellen Key's The Education of a Child (1910)
• Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls:  This extraordinary Website is devoted to the Dime Novel and Story Paper Collection at Stanford University Library. The site offers thousands of cataloged graphic images of illustrated covers to issues of the dime novels and story papers that were immensely popular in America from the mid-nineteenth century to its close. The images may be searched or browsed; search options include an exhaustive listing of "salient features," including -- but not limited to -- cover images relating to Napoleon Bonaparte (2), African-Americans (107), Cowboys (118), and College Students (8). Cultural studies scholars can make good use of these search options in examining graphic representations of gender, class, race, work, and manners of the time. The site also includes nine complete texts and catalog information for all of the issues imaged. Images may be viewed in thumbnail or full screen versions (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).

BIBLIOGRAPHIES OF SCHOLARLY RESEARCH MATERIALS

• Critical and theoretical sources on childhood and children's culture
• A bibliography of children's culture resources (Professor J. Cassell, Northwestern U)
• A bibliography of critical sources on children's literature (Professor P. Nodelman, U of Winnipeg)
• Materials for the Study of Childhood and Children (Princeton University: includes a detailed bibliography, and materials for research)

LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES and MUSEUMS 

• The University of Minnesota is home to the Kerlan Collection of children's literature as well as several other Children's Literature Special Collections.
• A database of British special collections, libraries and museums with children's literature collections and archives and a more specialized database of London-based collections, sponsored by the Roehampton University of Surrey.
• The British Library
• COPAC: a consortium of British university libraries
• Victorian and Edwardian Literature Collection - University of California at Riverside
• Clark Library - UCLA
• Victoria and Albert Museum - London
• London's Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood
• The University of Mississippi's deGrummond Collection of children's literature.
• Nineteenth Century Children's Literature -- The British Library:
This database, maintained by the publishing house of Chadwyck-Healey, Ltd., provides searchable records of the British Library's Children's Literature collection, which contains 2,369 titles on 5,527 fiches. Search parameters include title and complete record keyword, author, subject, publisher, year(s) of publication, microfiche number, and number of records retrieved. (Users may also browse possible search terms for each parameter.) Each entry gives a full bibliographic record for the individual text, including author, uniform title, imprint, place and date of publication, pagination, copy-specific notes, British Library shelfmark, and Fiche quantity and number. The site is part of The Nineteenth Century, a larger collection from Chadwyck-Healey and the British Library that catalogs an impressive array of nineteenth-century texts useful for historical and cultural studies (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
• History-Child-Family Mailing List:  This new unmoderated mailing list has been created to "enable exchange of ideas and resources among teachers and researchers of childhood and family history in Britain and Europe." The homepage contains list information and searchable message archives (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).

WORKING CHILDREN'S LIVES AND LABOR

• Factory Life in the Nineteenth Century
• Child Labor
• Letters from a Victorian Governess
• The Penny Magazine online - weekly magazine aimed at the working class
• Children in Urban America Project: an online archive that shows the many ways children experienced city life during the last century and a half.  The site features hundreds of documents and images about children in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, drawn from newspapers, government and other official records, oral histories and memoirs, and many other sources.
• A hypertext edition of Jacob A. Riis's 1890 study How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York (includes the author's illustrations and photographs)
• Child Labor in America 1908-1912: photographs by Lewis W. Hine
• Child Labor in the Nineteenth Century
• Records and photographs from the National Child Labor Committee (1904-1953).
• Newspaper Carriers' Addresses: Along with the plaintive cries of greengrocers, fishmongers, and small waifs calling out "Shine your shoes guv'nor?" in the late 19th century, one might also see a variety of newspaper boys out delivering the paper and hawking it on the streets by means of colorful language and lurid descriptions. One form of expression by these carriers was their annual addresses, which were printed pieces distributed to their customers on New Year's Day in order to solicit a small tip for their faithful service throughout the year. The good people at the Center for Digital Initiatives at Brown University Library have placed a fine collection of these broadsheets online for the general public, dating from 1772 to 1912, and originating from such papers as the Albany Argus and the Peoria Journal. Visitors may search or browse this delightful collection, and read an introductory essay on these addresses,
  which includes a notable excerpt from one address about the carriers themselves that reads: "Bedouins of the street they are, tenting anywhere. Pitching camp upon the cobblestones, Braving rain and snow and sleet and winter's chilly wind; Lighting fires to warm their frozen bones" (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).

EDUCATION

• A Journey Through the History of State Education in England
• A History of Education and Childhood
• An Online Collection of 19th-Century Schoolbooks
• The History of American Education Web Project
• ERIC Digests Index Page: The latest update to the ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) Digest database features 43 full-text short reports aimed at education professionals and the broader education community. Each report includes an overview of an education topic of current interest and offers references for further information.  Sample titles include: "Gender Issues in Children's Literature," "Urban After-School Programs: Evaluations and Recommendations," "Guidelines for Evaluating Web Sites," and "Meeting the National Standards: Now What Do I Do?"  Users can search the entire ERIC Digests database from the index page. ERIC, part of the National Library of Education (NLE), is a nationwide education information system sponsored by the US Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).

PEDIATRIC HEALTH AND MEDICINE

• Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children:  From 10 beds in its modest beginnings in 1852, to 200 beds by the end of the 19th century, to 335 beds today, The Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) was Britain's first hospital for sick children and is currently celebrating its 150th birthday. The site brings together medical profiles, notes, and photographs that expose the evolution of patient care.  Links from the home page take users on a journey of caring through the ages, what nursing was like, what surgery was like, a 150-year photographic gallery, and 150 years of achievement (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).

A CHILD'S-EYE VIEW

• PaPa iNk: The International Gallery of Children's Art: An amazing resource and unique tribute to the oft under-recognized value of children's art, PapaInk archives and makes available works that otherwise certainly would have been overlooked by everyone but the creators and their immediate loved ones. Founded in 1999 with a mission preserving and posting children's artwork, PapaInk has grown in significance and status ever since. Serving as a crossroads for art sharing and appreciation, the site features several collections, some arranged by theme, others by artists or gallery. Showcasing art from around the world, Papaink is a global forum. Visitors to the site can both view and forward links of what they appreciate to others. Many of the featured works offer detailed captions and descriptions, allowing visitors more intimate glimpses into the lives and minds of the young artists that created them. Convinced that what children see is every bit as valid as what adults do, Papaink is dedicated to helping preserve those visions and all they express (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
• Children's Drawings of the Spanish Civil War: A Virtual Exhibition Catalog: Curated by Angela Giral, Emeritus Director of the Avery Architectural Library at Columbia University, this web exhibition includes 153 drawings made by children aged 7 to 14 during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Children were evacuated from the war zones to war-free areas of Spain and the south of France, and many of the drawings show children traveling to these safer areas, as well as more shocking scenes of planes dropping bombs. Curator Giral was herself an evacuated child, and the Columbia website invites others with similar heritage to identify themselves (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
• They Still Draw Pictures: Drawings Made by Spanish Children During the Spanish Civil War, Circa 1938--UCSD MSCL
  Mandeville Special Collections Library, University of California, San Diego, presents this exhibition of 609 drawings made by school children in Spain and in refugee centers in France during the Spanish Civil War. Images of war through children's eyes predominate, but some drawings show scenes unaffected by the war. The Spanish Board of Education and the Carnegie Institute of Spain collected the drawings and, in 1938, published 60 in a book entitled They Still Draw Pictures, with a forward by Aldous Huxley, to raise funds for children's relief efforts in Spain. Visitors to the site can view the black and white plates from the book by clicking on published drawings. The hundreds of additional pictures from library collections are arranged by location, and are reproduced in color. Captions include title, artist's name and age, school, and some description (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
• Beyond the Fire: Teen Experiences of War. The experience of war is traumatic for all persons who happen to be involved in such activities, whether they be soldiers, commanders, or civilians who are caught up in the ensuing maelstrom. This interactive site tells the story of teenagers involved in various conflicts around the globe, and is maintained by the good people at the Independent Lens Organization. Upon reaching the site's homepage, visitors will be enticed by the multimedia portraits of such teenagers, including Naima Margan in Somalia and Shaima Abdul in Afghanistan. After listening to their stories, visitors may elect to offer feedback on the program, or read transcripts of the participants' comments. The features that educators will appreciate include an interactive world map, conflict timelines, and facts about each country. The site is also rounded out by a fine selection of links to outside Web-based resources, such as the World Fact Book and the homepage of the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).

IMAGES OF CHILDHOOD

• When They Were Young: A Photographic Retrospective of Childhood
  Culled from the thousands of photographs and negatives contained within their collections, the Library of Congress has created this loving and multifaceted online exhibit of over 70 images that capture the experience of childhood as it is connected across time, different cultures, and diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Interspersed with quotations from the Pulitzer- Prize winning author Robert Coles, the photographs contain images taken by such renowned photographers as Edward S. Curtis, Dorothea Lange, and Jack Delano. The portraits of children here include young people in the rural American South during the Great Depression, Native Americans from the Pacific Northwest, farm laborers in Puerto Rico, and African Americans in Harlem. Additionally, there is information about the book produced in conjunction with the exhibit, When They Were Young, authored by Robert Coles (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
• The New Child, 1730-1830
• The Sepia Child - photographs of children by Lewis Carroll
• A collection of Victorian and Edwardian photographs of children
• A hypertext version of photographer Jacob Riis's collection of documentary photographs called "How the Other Half Lives," first published in 1890.
• When They Were Young, A Photographic Retrospective of Childhood (Library of Congress)
• Picturing Childhood: an online exhibit on the evolution of children's book illustrations (UCLA)
• The Age of Lost Innocence: A Web site on depression-era photographs of children (U Virginia).
• Child Labor in America 1908-1912: A collection of photographs by Lewis Hines, with his original captions.
• An online portfolio of Lewis Carroll photographs from the Princeton University Library Department of Rare Books and Special Collections.
• An online exhibit of Carroll's photographs from the University of Texas at Austin's Harry Ransome Research Library, includes a page devoted to Carroll's photographs of children.

CHILDREN'S LIVES

• Child Labor in the Nineteenth Century
• A report on New York City tenements from 1908
• Juvenile Justice in the Nineteenth Century; Two Cases
• Playing House: Homemaking for Children: The world of American domesticity in the late 19th and early 20th century was one that placed a premium on oversight of many aspects of the home. While many instructional devices (such as books and manuals) were created to instruct women in the fine arts of cookery, laundry, and other areas, there were equivalent materials created for young girls. As part of their ongoing work, the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections project has created this digital collection that brings together several of these manuals from this period. All told, the collection contains five such works, including Elizabeth Hale Gilman's "Things Girls Like To Do" from 1917 and her oft- cited work from 1916, "Housekeeping". Each work can be viewed in its entirety, and visitors can also perform searches across the entire collection
(Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu). (Copyright 1994-2007 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
• A Web site devoted to the "Orphan Trains," an ambitious and controversial program which relocated over 100,000 poor and neglected children from urban homes to rural American farms between 1853 and 1929.
• Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General [.pdf, Windows Media Player]
Originally commissioned in response to the Columbine High shootings, the Surgeon General's report on youth violence "examines the factors that lead young people to gravitate toward violence, reviews the factors that protect youth from perpetrating violence and identifies effective research-based preventive strategies." While acknowledging that there has been a downward trend in youth violence since 1993, the report concludes that the "epidemic of youth violence is not over." The report identifies 27 specific intervention programs that have shown themselves to be statistically successful as well as debunking several common myths about youth violence. These last include assumptions about early childhood behavior as predictive of later violence, about the racial make-up of violent offenders, and the myth of the young "super-predator." From the above URL, visitors can access the full report, an executive summary, the January 17th press release (all in .pdf format), an archived Webcast of the surgeon general discussing the report (requires Windows Media Player), and some relevant links (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
• Child Well-Being Indicators From the SIPP (Number 24), Census Bureau:
The Census Bureau has recently posted Population Division Working Papers No. 24 on its website. The paper, written by Kristin E. Smith, Loretta E. Bass, and Jason M. Fields, provides figures from four areas of child well-being: early childhood experiences, parent-child interaction, school-age enrichment activities, and children's academic experience (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
• The State of the World’s Children 2006 [pdf]: Known around the world for their work on behalf of children, UNICEF recently issued the latest version of their annual “State of the World’s Children” report. While the entire report is worthy of review, visitors who may be pressed for time should first consider the executive summary. In brief, the summary notes that certain inequities among groups of children across the world may be best addressed by tackling poverty-reduction strategies, addressing the situation within ‘fragile’ nations, and lobbying the
  international community to prevent and resolve armed conflict. The tables in the report are quite illustrative, and they include those that contain economic indicators, HIV/AIDS infection rates, and child protection measures. The report is available in a number of different languages, including Spanish and French (Copyright 1994-2007 Internet Scout Project -http://scout.wisc.edu).
• Children of Conflict: Presented by BBC Worldservice with the assistance of the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) and the Human Rights Fund of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, this site features the harrowing tales of children caught in war zones across the world, told in their own words. Divided into sections which explore the different experiences of the children of conflict (child soldiers, wounded children, lost children, child-headed households, child workers), the site offers brief explanatory notes, numerous quotes, RealAudio selections in a variety of languages, transcripts, and letters from children. Links are provided throughout the site to sources for more information (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).

TOYS AND MATERIAL CULTURE

• Think Pink: Barbie as Cultural Icon and
• A Cultural Studies reading list on Barbie
• A History of Childhood and Play
• Pastimes and Paradigms: Games We Play: This site from the Carl A. Kroch Library at Cornell University explores the evolution of games since 1800, and includes a number of sections that examines the various functions of these different pastimes through the past two centuries. In sections such as Pernicious Pastimes, visitors will learn various games of chance, such as the Gay Wolves punchboard and take a look at some interesting circular playing cards. All told, there are thirteen like-minded sections, exploring the various incarnations of games from different cultures around the world, and visitors may test their mettle at the end by trying to complete a crossword puzzle. Visitors will also appreciate the playful nature of the site's homepage, as it features a board that looks suspiciously like a well-known real estate board game based around Atlantic City properties where moving the mouse over various locales reveals historic game pieces (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).

CHILDREN'S MEDIA AND POPULAR CULTURE

• The Children's Digital Media Center: a site devoted to important developments in research on children and media, the design of media for children, and research on the impact of interactive media on children.
• Children Go Online: A project that explores the nature and meaning of children's internet use and maps emerging patterns of attitudes and practices across diverse contexts and social groups in the UK.
• An overview of the work of popular culture and education theorist Henry Giroux, includes links to primary and scondary sources.
• The text of Giroux's essay, "Animating Youth: the Disnification of Children's Culture."
• A detailed study guide for MICKEY MOUSE MONOPOLY: DISNEY, CHILDHOOD, AND CORPORATE POWER, a video by Chyng Sun & Miguel Picker
• The text of "Reversal of Roles: Subversion and Reaffirmation of Racial Stereotypes in Dumbo and The Jungle Book," an essay by Alex Wainer
• The text of Jean Baudrillard's essay "Disneyworld Company."
• A UC Berkeley bibliography of scholarly sources on the Disney Corporation, includes both general overviews and studies of specific films.
• Hardy-Boys.com: Seemingly ageless, Frank and Joe Hardy have been solving a host of mysteries since 1927. Despite the rather formulaic nature of their book-length adventures, they remain immensely popular, a fact that this website makes quite plain. On the site, visitors can learn much about the history of the series and its many incarnations in such media formats as LPs, television series, graphic novels, and so on. The site also contains hundreds of images of the book covers through the years, including a number of international editions. Those who remember the different television series based on the boys' adventures will want to take a look through the television series section of the site, as they will no doubt enjoy seeing that oh-so popular 1970s teen "squeeze" Shaun Cassidy as Joe Hardy (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).

CHILDREN'S RIGHTS AND INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM

• A timeline of child protection legislation from The Guardian.
• A list of children's rights and advocacy organizations, including groups which encourage participation by children themselves.
• Information on censorship from Banned Books Online
• Wielding the Red Pen: An online exhibit from the University of Virginia on banned children's books.
• Author Jim Trelease on Censorship and Children's Books.
• The American Library Association's Website on banned books contains background and information on how and why books are challenged, a list of the 100 most frequently banned books, as well as advice and resources for parents, teachers and librarians on how to deal with book challenges.
• Information on the First Amendment and Censorship from Books A to Z.
• Information on Censorship, Youth and the Internet from Professor Kay Vandergrift.
• A collection of links related to the censorship battle over Nappy Hair, a picture book written by Carolivia Herron and illustrated by Joe Cepeda.

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

• Online Children's Literature Resources from Professor Sigler's Children's Literature: Texts and Contexts class (ENGL 3333).
• Children's Literature: Librarians, teachers, and children's book aficionados will find a wealth of free resources at the Children's Literature website, as well as information about the Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD), available by subscription only. (Visitors to the web site can sign up for a free trial of the database). One of the key features of the site is the Themed Reviews, that make it easy to get a list of best books on a subject. In this section, choose from almost 60 topics such as Remembering September 11th, 2001, Dinosaurs, Gardening, TV Turn Off Week, or Space Exploration. Most topics include a short introduction, for example, Flight and the Wright Brothers begins with a bit of biography on the Wrights. This is followed by short, signed reviews (reviewers' credentials are also provided), often with cover images, and age recommendations. There is biographical information about authors and illustrators (often links to publisher pages), as well as teaching guides and lesson plans, and events and upcoming conferences (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
• Database of Award-winning Children's Literature:  Lisa M. Bartle, reference/user education librarian at the Lima Regional Campus of Ohio State University, compiled and indexed this database of award-winning children's literature. Parents, teachers, and older children can access high quality book titles via keyword or phrase searching, or by using a form to indicate reading level, genre, language, historical period, gender of the protagonist, and ethnicity of the protagonist, among other elements.  Books listed have been recognized with awards ranging from the Caldecott Award to ALA Notable Books for Children to the Coretta Scott King Award, to name a few. Honorable mentions are also included (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
• Nineteenth Century Children's Literature -- The British Library:This database, maintained by the publishing house of Chadwyck-Healey, Ltd., provides searchable records of the British Library's Children's Literature collection, which contains 2,369 titles on 5,527 fiches. Search parameters include title and complete record keyword, author, subject, publisher, year(s) of publication, microfiche number, and number of records retrieved. (Users may also browse possible search terms for each parameter.) Each entry gives a full bibliographic record for the individual text, including author, uniform title, imprint, place and date of publication, pagination, copy-specific notes, British Library shelfmark, and Fiche quantity and number. The site is part of The Nineteenth Century, a larger collection from Chadwyck-Healey and the British Library that catalogs an impressive array of nineteenth-century texts useful for historical and cultural studies (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
• Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls:  This extraordinary Website is devoted to the Dime Novel and Story Paper Collection at Stanford University Library. The site offers thousands of cataloged graphic images of illustrated covers to issues of the dime novels and story papers that were immensely popular in America from the mid-nineteenth century to its close. The images may be searched or browsed; search options include an exhaustive listing of "salient features," including -- but not limited to -- cover images relating to Napoleon Bonaparte (2), African-Americans (107), Cowboys (118), and College Students (8). Cultural studies scholars can make good use of these search options in examining graphic representations of gender, class, race, work, and manners of the time. The site also includes nine complete texts and catalog information for all of the issues imaged. Images may be viewed in thumbnail or full screen versions (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
• SHARP Web: SHARP Web is a collection of resources for scholars and students of the history of print culture in any place, language, or period. Affiliated with the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading & Publishing (SHARP), SHARP Web offers guides to publishers' archives, syllabi for courses in book history, bibliographies, links to exhibits and special collections, and up-to-date notices and calls for papers. Whether you're studying American colonial newspapers or illuminated manuscripts, children's literature or the transmission of ancient texts, SHARP Web is a good place to connect with the international community of book historians (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
• Page by Page: Creating a Children's Book: From the National Library of Canada, this entertaining site takes the user page-by-page through the creation of a picture book, Zoom Upstream, written by Tim Wynne-Jones and illustrated by Eric Beddows. Zoom Upstream is the third book chronicling the adventures of Zoom the cat; in this one he visits Egypt. The eight main sections of the site, in either French or English, trace the book's progress from idea through finding the illustrator and pictures, to printing, selling the book, and afterwards. The section on pictures, appropriately, is the most extensive, showing how the illustrator gets every detail exactly right, beginning with analyzing the text for words and concepts that need to be represented in the pictures. To get the characters to look right, Beddows made a cat model and photographed human models in scenes from the book. For backgrounds, the illustrator studied books on Egyptian architecture, and made a research trip to Egypt. Wynne-Jones, the author, does admit that writing the first Zoom book (Zoom at Sea) only took 20 minutes, but that "usually writing a story is a lot harder" (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
• The Fairrosa Cyber Library of Children's Literature.
• The Internet Public Library's Youth Division.
• A detailed annotated bibliography of children's literature criticism and research organized by topic, designed to accompany The Pleasures of Children's Literature (3rd ed) by Perry Nodelman and Mavis Reimer.
• ABC Lit Database of Children's Literature Scholarship: A searchable index to children's literature scholarship, designed for use by those interested in the theories and criticism used to analyze children's literature.
• Children's Books Online: The Children's Book Online website has been online for eight years, and during that time it has grown immensely (largely due to the efforts of numerous volunteers from around the world and the able direction of its president, Guy Chocensky). The site contains full versions of dozens of classic children's books, including David Copperfield, Grampa in Oz, and Peter Rabbit. What is equally compelling is that a number of the books are available in a number of different languages, including Polish, Italian, German, Romanian, French, and Russian. Visitors will want to also join their electronic mailing list to be informed when new titles are added to the site, and to sign their online guestbook. The site also contains a few rarities that may be unfamiliar to contemporary readers, including The Bashful Earthquake by Oliver Herford (first published in 1898) and the lovely work, The Marquis of Carabas, painted by Edmund Evans (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
• Children's Books Centers:
  Center for Children's Books (CCB) at the University of Illinois
  University of Wisconsin Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
  First, the CCB site offers "a non-circulating collection of more than 14,000 recent and historically significant trade books for youth, birth through high school, plus review copies of nearly all trade books published in the U.S. in the current year." Additionally, there are over 1,000 reference titles on the study of literature and storytelling for youth. The second site, from the University of Wisconsin Children's Book Center, offers "original bibliographies created by CCBC librarians, book reviews, webcasts of CCBC-sponsored speeches by children's and young adult book creators, and many more unique resources for librarians, teachers, university students and others." Both sites will provide interested visitors with an incredible array of resources for those interested in children's literature (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).

PICTURE BOOKS

• Picturing Books: A Web site about Picture Books offers background on styles, authors and media as well as a searchable database.
• The Children's Picture Book Database from Miami University can help you locate books on particular subjects.
• The International Children's Digital Library: Sponsored by the University of Maryland, this online library of 325 picture books in Chinese, Spanish, Vietnamese, Farsi, French, English, and Russian, enables viewers to select and read picture books online.
• Notes on how to visually analyze a picture book, as well as a collection of sample visual analyses of picture books from a class taught by Professor Kay Vandergrift at Rutgers University.
• A collection of online resources on Visual Literacy and Picture Books from the Internet School Library Media Center.
• Professor Susan Steffen's Online Art Journey: an overview of picture-book terms, methods, techniques, and styles.
• Early Illustrators of Children's Books: Background and resources on nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century illustrators of children's books.

INDIVIDUAL AUTHORS

• The Internet School Library Media Center's index to author and illustrator Internet sites.
• Information about children's authors and illustrators from Kay Vandergrift's Children's Literature site, includes hundreds of links to authors' and illustrators' own Web sites.
• A wealth of author resources from The Children's Literature Web Guide
• The online Contemporary Authors database contains detailed overviews of the lives and careers of many of the authors in this class.

Horatio Alger

• Horatio Alger Jr. Resources
  This site lists online resources for Horatio Alger Jr., a figure who cast a giant shadow in the world of popular dime novels for juvenile readers, and who is best known for tales that celebrated the rags to riches mythos. Here visitors can peruse online versions of Alger's novels, and various online biographies and critical resources.
• A page devoted to The Novels of Horatio Alger, includes a biography, discussion of major themes, and plot summaries of several novels.

J.M. Barrie

• J.M. Barrie: Andrew Birkin, auther of J.M. Barrie and the Lost Boys (Yale, 2003), hosts this site devoted to Barrie, which offers several galleries of photographs of Barrie, the Davies family, and Peter Pan productions over the years; early video clips featuring Barrie; excerpts from letters and journals; links to online versions of Barrie's literary texts; and the text of Birkin's introduction to his biography of Barrie.
• "How Bad Was J.M. Barrie?" Read this biographical piece by another Barrie biographer, Justine Picardie, and find out.
• Visit the Website of the J.M. Barrie Society for biographical information and an online discussion group, hosted by an organization of Barrie enthusiasts.
  

Lewis Carroll

• Read and "turn the pages" of Carroll's original manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground, the latest 3D addition to the British Library's Turning The Pages collection of books available via the Web. Using Flash technology, the manuscript can be virtually "handled." Viewers can also choose to listen to an audio version of the book, and to zoom in and exam the text in greater detail.
• Lewis Carroll: An Overview: A detailed collection of Web pages from the Victorian Web offers information on Carroll's biography, literary reputation, themes, and historical, economic, scientific and aesthetic contexts.
• Lewis Carroll Homepage: Sponsored by the Lewis Carroll Society of North America, this site offers a guide to Web and print Lewis Carroll resources and documents.
• Looking for Lewis Carroll: A site devoted to recent, revisionary biographical research into the complex life of Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodgson, and some of the mysteries and puzzles surrounding his life, literary work, and reputation.
• An online portfolio of Lewis Carroll photographs from the Princeton University Library Department of Rare Books and Special Collections.
• An online exhibit of Carroll's photographs from the University of Texas at Austin's Harry Ransome Research Library, includes a page devoted to Carroll's photographs of children.
• Lewis Carroll Scrapbook: While there have been many notable mathematicians that have made Oxford University (England) home for their academic careers, one of them is better known for his fiction writing than for his problem solving. The Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, also known as Lewis Carroll, was the author one of the best known children's story, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). Also to his credit is Through the Looking-Glass (1871). At this site maintained by the Library of Congress visitors will find the contents of a scrapbook kept by Carroll during the middle years of his life from 1855 to 1871. Of the 200 pages, 63 contain clippings and writing and all of these are available to view at the site. Users can browse or search for specific items by title or subject (Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu).
• Michael Hancher's 1985 book, The Tenniel Illustrations to the "Alice" Books is no longer in print, but The Ohio State University Press has recently made it available to download (in pdf format), along with many other out of print texts.
• In "Alice on Film and Video," educator and author Monica Edinger offers descriptions of (and links to) Alice-related video clips available on Youtube, which include a 1934 Betty Boop cartoon, "Betty in Blunderland," a 1954 Alice-themed Jello commercial, and a 1960s drugstore commercial, "Alice in Rexall-Land."
• Cecil M. Hepworth's 1903 Alice in Wonderland, the first cinematic version of Alice's adventures, is also now available to see on YouTube, with added commentary by the British Film Institute's Simon Brown.

Charles Dickens

• The Dickens Page offers a comprehensive list of links to Web sites on Dickens's life and works.
• The Dickens Project - sponsored by the University of California at Santa Cruz offers a detailed Dickens chronology, bibliography, and background information about Dickens's life and works.
• Discovering Dickens: A Community Reading Project. Sponsored by Stanford University. Discovering Dickens offers downloadable (pdf) facsimiles of Hard Times, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations in their original serialized forms, as well as background information on these novels.
• The Discovering Dickens reading project for 2005 is Hard Times. On the Web site you will find a number of helpful resources to assist your reading and research, including pdf facsimiles of the novel as serialized in Household Words, illustrations, information on allusions in the novel, an historical glossary, a Household Words essay on "the Woman Question" (pdf), and detailed background on biographical and historical contexts.
• Charles Dickens: An Overview (from The Victorian Web). The most detailed and comprehensive site on Dickens. This site also offers "An Introduction to Charles Dickens's Hard Times for These Times (1854): Background to the Novel," which includes a page devoted to background on Hard Times as an Industrial Novel, and a "Bibliography of Suggested Readings" on Hard Times.
• The text of Dickens's 1853 essay on fairy tales, "Frauds on the Fairies," which argues that "[i]n an utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that Fairy tales should be respected."
• Ohio State University Press has made a number of their out-of-print titles available to download for research purposes (in pdf format), including Mildred Newcomb's The Imagined World of Charles Dickens (1993) and Jane R. Cohen's Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators (1980).
  

Louise Fitzhugh

• Purple Socks: A Louise Fitzhugh Tribute Site
• "Still Spying After All These Years"- A USA Today story on the enduring popularity of Harriet the Spy
• And here's a similar report from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
• A detailed overview of Fitzhugh's life and literary work from the Contemporary Authors database

Fairy Tales

• The text of Dickens's 1853 essay on fairy tales, "Frauds on the Fairies," which argues that "[i]n an utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that Fairy tales should be respected."
• Sources for the Analysis and Interpretation of Fairy Tales
• Folklore, Myth and Legend links and Resources
• "Cinderella" links and resources
• "The Little Red Riding Hood" Project at the University of Mississippi
• "Snow White" resources compiled by Kay Vandergrift at Rutgers University
• A bibliography of modern "fractured" fairy tales
• Marvels & Tales: The Journal of Fairy Tale Studies
• "The Fantastic in Victorian Fairy Tales Illustration" from the Victorian Web
• SurLaLune Fairy Tale Pages: A portal to the realm of fairy tale and folklore studies featuring 27 annotated fairy tales, including their histories, similar tales across cultures, and over 1,000 illustrations.
• "How Feminist Are Fractured Fairy Tales?" by Dr. Hilary Crew
• A helpful bibliography of fairy-tale resources from the Connecticut State University Library.
• A helpful bibliography of fairy tale collections, revisions and criticism by A. Waller Hastings at Northern State U.
  

J.K. Rowling

• Scholastic's Harry Potter site
• Rowling's Harry Potter Web site
• An article on Rowling from Salon.com
• "Harry Potter's Girl Trouble," also from Salon.com
• The most complete and comprehensive collection of Rowling and Potter links, compiled and updated regularly by Phil Nel at Kansas State University

Dare Wright

• Listen to Jean Nathan's essay about Dare Wright, "The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll," and see one the photographs of Dare taken by her mother, from NPR's This American Life (RealPlayer needed for sound file.  Download a free copy of RealPlayer Basic here)
• Loganberry Books' (Dare Wright's publisher) Web page for Wright's books