Cece Bell's (El Deafo, Amulet, New York, 2014) is a middle childhood graphic novel memoir that explores the author's experiences of losing her hearing and growing up with a severe hearing loss. As a graphic novel, the story is able to avoid a medicalized view of disability by combining image and text, a format that allows readers, those with…

Written before the successful publication of Skellig (1998), David Almond's short story collection, "Counting Stars," has attracted less critical attention than his more famous novels. Falling between fiction and autobiography, the earlier short stories are more firmly grounded in realism than the novels, which feature elements of…

The dolls' house as children's plaything is anything but simple. Inasmuch as the dolls' house may be the reproduction of domestic ideals on a minute scale and an educational model prompting girls to become good housewives, this article argues that it is also a means and space to express imagination, creativity, and agency. Including a short…

As a narrative series, Brandon Sanderson's humorous, middle grade, Alcatraz Smedry novels display some of the arguably vague concepts of Reader Response theorist Wolfgang Iser as accessible themes that encourage a critical understanding of the stories. "Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians" (2007), "Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones" (2008) and…

In the last two decades there have been significant numbers of children's books written about various aspects of the refugee experience. Previously authors had tended to approach this sensitive area principally through an historical perspective. However as the number of refugees in British schools increases, books dealing with contemporary…

While "Where the Wild Things Are" may be Maurice Sendak's most popular book, "In the Night Kitchen" is arguably the greater work. Though his journey in "Wild Things" shares many of the elements of Mickey's adventure in "Night Kitchen"--swinging between the protagonist's initiatory verbal assertions and silent, completely pictorial spreads that…

Presents an interview with Jamaican-born James Berry, award- winning poet, about his life experiences, influences, development as a poet, and recent poetry. (TB)

Discusses the biographical aspects of James Thurber's classic humorous fairy tale, "Many Moons." (HOD)

Explores the ways that Andrew Carnegie used the famous folk tale, "Jack and the Beanstalk," to shape his own autobiography. (HOD)

Reflects on the author's childhood reading experiences and explorations of his father's library. Examines one book in particular, Oscar Wilde's collection of stories entitled, "A House of Pomegranates." (TB)

Examines autobiographical fiction written for children in which the stories of ordinary lives are recorded and passed on to children, who, in turn, are affected by and affect the values and assumptions of their culture. (HOD)

Discusses Jean Fritz's book "Homesick" as a work of art on the borderline between biography and fiction. Suggests young readers should be provided accurate historical knowledge in order to (1) understand the characters' emotions and experiences, and (2) prevent traditional misconceptions from being perpetuated. (NH)

Offers reflections and anecdotes from the seven-decade writing career of the well-known children's author of "Bows against Arrows" (1934) and the five-book series beginning with "Boats on Bannermore" (1949) about a group of teenagers in a grammar school. (TB)