41
Reviewing and Scholarly Journals
Gillian Adams
The history of journals and reviews provides a revealing window on the process of canon
formation, the use of children’s and youth literature in teaching, and the development of
critical theory and practice as regards children’s literature. The initial choice of books
for review, criticism, and use in the classroom has much to do with their eventual
inclusion in the canon of significant children’s literature. Nevertheless, knowledge of the
subject is fragmentary, particularly for the earlier periods, with the exception of 1865–
1881 in the USA (Darling 1968); much research remains to be done.
The story begins with the perception by the eighteenth-century book trade in England
that children’s literature could be a profitable commodity, but that it was necessary to
publicise it. The earliest book lists and book reviews, if only in miniature, were the
notices and book lists by John Newbery. His advertisement for his first children’s book,
A Little Pretty Pocket Book, appeared in the Penny London Morning Advertiser of 18 June
1744 (Chambers 1974:161; Darton 1932/1982:1). Further promotional material and
book lists were included in his The Lilliputian Magazine (1751), The Gentleman’s
Magazine, and works like The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes (Darton 1932/1982:122–
135). Other publishers quickly espoused Newbery’s practices.
There is a difference between promotional material, which contains not only
information about a book but sometimes early positive responses to it, reviews, which
range from purely descriptive annotations to perceptive analyses, and sustained
bibliographical, historical and critical discussion. It is helpful, nevertheless, to think of
writing about children’s literature as a continuum rather than in terms of rigid
categories such as advertisements, reviews, and criticism. Particularly for earlier periods,
material put out by publishers can be a valuable source of information.
After 1800, children’s books began to receive brief notices in literary reviews such as
the Critical Review, British Critic and Monthly Review. The first sustained critical article
on children’s literature appeared in the Quarterly Review in 1844, unsigned but
attributed to Elizabeth Rigby. The article consists of a plea for the importance of
imaginative rather than didactic literature and is reprinted in Haviland (1974:8–18). In a
format well-known to readers of library journals, Rigby concludes with an annotated
book list of ‘books of direct amusement’. As the nineteenth century progressed, more
sustained reviews and critical articles began to appear in journals like The Bookman,
Fortnightly Review, Macmillan’s Magazine, and The Nineteenth Century (see the
bibliography in Pellowski 1968:354–382). John Ruskin’s remarks on what he considered