including a discussion of the illustrations, try to give some indication of a book’s future
popularity so that orders can be sent in ahead of time. A.B.Bookman’s Weekly, directed
largely at book dealers, runs articles of interest to collectors and bibliophiles and has a
special children’s book issue once a year.
Among London book trade publications is Books for Keeps: The Children’s Book
Magazine, edited by Chris Powling for the School Bookshop Association. It is a review
journal of children’s books, formerly called Children’s Books and incorporating British
Book News Children’s Supplement. There is also CBF News, formerly CCB News, put out
by the Children’s Book Foundation. It was once a section incorporated with the Book
Trust’s Book News (London 1979-) but is now available separately to members of the
Book Trust. Primarily consisting of news and announcements, it does reprint acceptance
speeches for awards.
In the first half of the twentieth century, literary periodicals such as The Bookman
(New York 1891–1934) and the Saturday Review of Literature (New York 1924–1952)
carried regular columns and sustained critical essays as did the Sunday supplements to
The New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune (Pellowski 1968:398). At present
the New York Times Book Review publishes a special section on children’s books twice a
year, with some quite substantial illustrated reviews written by authors, members of the
staff, and other people in the field. There is usually a general essay on the subject, and
an outstanding historical or critical book on children’s literature may also be reviewed.
Every issue usually has two to four shorter reviews of children’s books. These reviews
are worth checking when beginning to write a critical article about a children’s author.
A crucial date for English children’s books, according to Frank Eyre (1971:26– 27),
and for ‘intelligent reviewing, reaching a wider public’ is the introduction in 1949 of a
periodic, special ‘Children’s books supplement’ to the Times Literary Supplement. It
marked a new phase, not only introducing literate parents to new and better children’s
books but granting recognition to fine writers for children. The new status gained for
children’s books improved the willingness of publishers to risk capital on better books
that went beyond the usual formulas.
In Canada, Quill and Quire (1935-), like the Times Literary Supplement and the New
York Times Book Review, has provided sustained reviews, particularly since it
incorporated Canadian Books for Young People, once a separate periodical. Serious
reviewing of children’s books in Australia began with the establishment of the Australian
Book Review in 1961. Its reviews were dominated by Dennis Hall (Haviland 1974:342).
The annual children’s book issue has contained short articles on the history and
criticism of Australian children’s books. In 1965 both the national newspaper, The
Australian, and the Australian School Librarian (ceased publication), began publishing
regular reviews of children’s books. Now The Age also provides articles and reviews.
Library PublicationsThe further development of regular reviews and articles at the beginning of the twentieth
century in the USA was carried on by librarians, and it was the librarians who published
the first journal that included discussions of literature for children and adolescents as a
matter of principle. Reviews in library publications of books for children and
480 THE CONTEXT OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE