actors have staged sequences from published literary works (see her related annotated
lists of adolescent fiction (1992a, 1992b) and her interviews with writers for youth
(1991)).
Contemporary DevelopmentsIt was not until the 1970s, that universities took up the serious academic study of
children’s literature. Many undergraduate courses evolved to meet the needs of the
growing numbers of teachers who were graduating. Masters degrees by course-work,
both on campus and in distance mode, exist in several Australian universities and
Masters by research and Doctorates occur spasmodically but in growing numbers.
Research collections which feed academic endeavour are housed in the Bailleau Library
(Morgan Collection) University of Melbourne, the State Libraries of Victoria, South
Australia and Western Australia and The Lu Rees Archives at Canberra University.
Conferences in the field of children’s literature, both national and international, are
now a regular event with published proceedings providing an informed readership with
critical insights into major preoccupations in the field (Trask 1972, 1973, 1975;
Robinson 1977; Saxby 1978; Lees 1980; Murphy 1980; Noel 1981; Alderman and
Harman, 1983; Stodart, 1985; Alderman and Reeder, 1987; Children’s Book Council of
Australia 1992, 1994; Stone 1991, 1993; Parsons and Goodwin 1994).
Basic bibliographic data have been compiled (Muir 1970, 1976) and historical surveys
are in place (Saxby 1969, 1971, 1993; Niall 1984; Lees and MacIntyre 1993; Bayfield
1994) thus the groundwork has been laid for fuller critical consideration of Australian
children’s literature (for example, McVitty 1981; Thomson 1987; Stephens 1992). There
is, however, a marked schism between those who consider children’s books within the
context of awards and library promotions, and those whose task it is to place children’s
literature within the context of general literary studies. Children’s literature needs the
energies from both sources.
Unless one writes for Meanjin and similar mainstream outlets for literature in
Australia, publication outlets for scholarly articles in children’s literature are largely
confined to the journal Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature. Journals of
professional interest to teachers, librarians and publishers are available in richer supply
through: Access (formerly Australian School Librarian), The Australian Author, Australian
Book Review, Australian Journal of Reading, Curriculum Exchange, Editions, English in
Australia, Idiom, Journal of the School Library Association of Queensland, Lines, The
Literature Base, The Lu Rees Archives, Magpies, Orana (formerly Children’s Libraries
Newsletter), Reading Time (formerly New Books for Boys and Girls), Review Point, Rippa
Reading, Teacher and Librarian, and Viewpoint. The wide range of journals is a reflection
of the growing children’s literature industry in Australia.
A boom in children’s book publishing occurred again in the prosperous 1980s. Even
during the international recession of the early 1990s, publishers of children’s and
adolescents’ books were expanding—as though hope could only be sustained through
youth. Yet it is through the literature for young people that many social problems were
confronted so that the ‘problem novel’ has become a sustained genre in publishing:
single parent families, divorce, drug addiction, teenage pregnancies, are typical themes.
838 THE WORLD OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE