Phyllis J. Van Orden

For those entering the field of teacher librarianship and taking a class in childrens materials, the authors provide a basic guide to choosing the best. They cover the expected topics of general selection criteria and criteria for special audiences such as children with disabilities, books with gay themes, and others along with selection guides and problems dealing with selection. However, if I were teaching a children’s materials course these days, I would have to select a second text to cover multimedia and Internet materials for children in addition to this work. So, while one cannot be critical about not including genre the authors did not intend to cover, a gaping hole in this work is using the resources of automated systems from the various jobbers as tools for selection have cut the old manual selection time significantly. Thus, this work is solidly in the “traditional” camp and leaves us crying out for current and future directions. Recommended with reservations.… (mais)