increasingly academic, with more and more footnotes and longer and longer lists of
references. The question of whether the studies that they contain are excessively
academic and technical and whether they may result in reader backlash has recently
been raised (Hunt 1992).
Recent JournalsThe presence of five major critical journals, Signal and Children’s Literature in Education
in Britain, and Children’s Literature, The Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, and
The Lion and the Unicorn in the USA, not to mention the numerous publications put out
by library and educational associations and the book trade in both countries, did nothing
to inhibit the creation of new journals in the 1980s and 1990s. Of these, the most
significant in Britain is the International Review of Children’s Literature and
Librarianship, founded in 1986 and edited by Margaret Kinnell. Issued three times a
year, this substantial journal, despite the title, is not limited to library services but
includes historical research into and sophisticated critical assessments of literature for
children and adolescents. The focus is international. From 1996 it has become an
annual publication.
Other recent journals appearing in Britain have been Bookmark, Bookquest: Reviews of
Children’s Books, Children’s Books History Society Newsletter; Children’s Books in
Scotland, Children’s Books in Ireland, Dragon’s Teeth: The Anti-Racist Children’s Books
Magazine (a quarterly issued by the National Committee on Racism in Children’s
Books), Pori (formerly Dragon’s Tale), put out by the Welsh National Centre for
Children’s Literature (Welsh text); and Youth Library Review, the official journal of the
Youth Libraries Group of the Library Association, with a focus on librarianship rather
than literature.
Finally, there are the journals devoted to a single author. Perhaps the oldest of these
in Britain is Jabberwocky: The Journal of the Lewis Carroll Society (1969—). It includes
reviews and letters to the editor as well as articles. Some other journals are the Abbey
Chronicle (Elsie J.Oxenham and affiliated school stories), Beatrix Potter Newsletter, Mixed
Moss: Journal of the Arthur Ransome Society, Mallorn (Tolkien) and Souvenir (Violet
Needham and related topics).
The USA also has its single author journals, the oldest and most distinguished of
which is The Baum Bugle, founded in 1956 by the bibliophile Justin Schiller. It has a
large circulation for this kind of periodical, 3,000, and covers any aspect of the Oz
books: films, games, and theatrical events, as well as bibliographical and critical
questions. There are also a number of publications centred on authors who wrote for
both children and adults, for example Jack London and Mark Twain. The most valuable
of these is Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R.Tolkien, C.S.Lewis, Charles Williams, and the
Genres of Myth and Fantasy Stories. It has been issued quarterly by the Mythopoeic
Society since 1969, and, since it became a refereed journal, the quality of the
submissions to it has improved. Even issues from the 1980s, however, contain some
worthwhile essays.
Other USA journals of interest are the Interracial Books for Children Bulletin or Bulletin
of the Council on Interracial Books for Children (appears irregularly), Children’s Folklore
486 THE CONTEXT OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE