Signal was quickly followed, in March 1970, by Children’s Literature in Education,
which was established by the late Sidney Robbins, a professor at the University of
Exeter, as the result of the conference on Recent Children’s Fiction and its Role in
Education. The first two issues of the journal contained papers from the conference. In
1977 the journal added a North American editor, Joan Blos, and since 1982 the journal
has been edited jointly by a North American editor (Anita Moss 1982–95; followed by Dr
Margaret Mackey) and a UK editorial team, chaired by Geoff Fox. Children’s Literature in
Education emphasises both the literary and the educational and is not interested in the
academic apparatus of literary criticism for its own sake. Recently the journal has
published articles that are based on new developments in critical theory, but it avoids
excessive jargon and insists on lively writing. The journal also publishes reviews of
books about children’s literature.
As in Britain, the USA lacked a forum for sustained critical discussion of children’s
literature, aside from The Horn Book Magazine, which could be viewed as a strictly
commercial venture in spite of some important articles that appeared in it. Although she
was a published Shakespearean scholar, when Francelia Butler joined the faculty at the
University of Connecticut in 1965, she was asked to teach the courses in children’s
literature because her male colleagues refused to do so. Resolved to legitimise the
subject, Butler formed the Children’s Literature Association, won affiliation and later
division status for children’s literature with the Modern Language Association, and, in
1972, founded the annual of the Association, Children’s Literature. The first issue was
published by a local minister at Butler’s expense, but the journal rapidly won the respect
of professionals and academics. In 1992, on Butler’s retirement from the University of
Connecticut, editorial operations were transferred to Hollins College, with Elizabeth
Keyser and R.H.W.Dillard as editors, but the journal continues to be published by Yale
University Press (Glassner 1993). The most academic of the children’s literature
journals, Children’s Literature demands that articles be carefully researched and be
significant contributions to the field. Scholarly books about children’s literature are
reviewed.
Somewhat less academic than Children’s Literature, the Children’s Literature
Association Quarterly started in 1974 as a newsletter, and from its first numbered issue
(1,1) until Winter, 1980 (4, 4) bore the title Quarterly Newsletter. Since 1983, the
editorship of the journal has changed every five years, with a shift in emphasis as well
as place of publication. Most issues contain a themed special section with a guest
editor. The journal includes reviews of books about children’s literature.
The Lion and the Unicorn was begun in 1977 to provide more room for the good writing
being generated by the still relatively new field of children’s literature criticism. The
journal was put out by its editors, Roni Natov and Geraldine
DeLuca, with the help of the Brooklyn College Publication Office until 1985, when it
was taken over by Johns Hopkins University Press; it is now edited by Louisa Smith and
Jack Zipes. From January 1997 two issues per yer will be theme-centred and one will be
general. Essays tend to vary in scope and quality, but a number of significant articles
have appeared in the journal. There is an extended interview with a children’s or youth
author in every issue. Some issues contain reviews of books about children’s literature.
With the exception of Signal, all the critical journals mentioned are becoming
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