The Man in the Moon has dropped down to earth for a visit. Over the hedge, a rabbit in trousers is having a pipe with his evening paper. Elsewhere, Alice is passing through a looking glass, Dorothy riding a tornado to Oz, and Jack climbing a beanstalk to heaven. To enter the world of children's literature is to journey to a realm where the miraculous and the mundane exist side by side, a world that is at once recognizable and real--and enchanted. Many books have probed the myths and meanings of children's stories, but Goldthwaite's Natural History is the first exclusively to survey the magic that lies at the heart of the literature. From the dish that ran away with the spoon to the antics of Brer Rabbit and Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat, Goldthwaite celebrates the craft, the invention, and the inspired silliness that fix these tales in our minds from childhood and leave us in a state of wondering to know how these things can be. Covering the three centuries from the fairy tales of Charles Perrault to Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, he gathers together all the major imaginative works of America, Britain, and Europe to show how the nursery rhyme, the fairy tale, and the beast fable have evolved into modern nonsense verse and fantasy. Throughout, he sheds important new light on such stock characters as the fool and the fairy godmother and on the sources of authors as diverse as Carlo Collodi, Lewis Carroll, and Beatrix Potter. His bold claims will inspire some readers and outrage others. He hails Pinocchio, for example, as the greatest of all children's books, but he views C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia as a parable that is not only murderously misogynistic, but deeply blasphemous as well. Fresh, incisive, and utterly original, this rich literary history will be required reading for anyone who cares about children's books and their enduring influence on how we come to see the world.

Marcus offers this animated history of the visionaries--editors, illustrators, and others--whose books have transformed American childhood and American culture.

The Tall Book is a celebration of the tall-advantaged, which notes and explores the myriad benefits that come with living large--from the simple pleasures of being able to see over crowds at a parade, to the professional joys of earning more money, and having others perceive you as a natural leader. The Tall Book also offers well-researched explanations into the great unanswered questions of tallness, including: Why are people tall to begin with? How have tall people figured throughout history? Why are CEOs so tall? And how does tallness affect the dating game? Filled with illustrative graphics, charts, and piles of tall miscellanea and factoids, The Tall Book is a wonderful and much-needed exploration of life from on high.

A treasury of art reproductions, literary excerpts, and suggestions for family activities with young children includes options for occasions ranging from outdoor play to bedtime reading, including rainy-day games, cooking, and imaginative activities.

Make every day a special day in your classroom with the creative ideas in this book. Every day in the month of October is a special celebration of some kind: Fitness Day, Fire Prevention Day, Greek Mythology Day, Make-Believe Day, Great Pumpkin Day and many more. All 31 special celebrations include suggestions for making them a part of your regular curriculum: language arts, social studies, writing, math, science and health, music and drama, physical fitness, art, etc. Your students will look forward to every day of the school year when you make it a constant celebration. And they'll learn while they have fun! Included are fun patterns for writing assignments and art projects as well as lists of books that correlate with the topic for each day.

Includes Part 1A: Books and Part 1B: Pamphlets, Serials and Contributions to Periodicals

This volume attains a broader understanding of the role media plays in the development and flourishing of children's imaginations and creative abilities, through research on children from several countries.