What do you think?
Rate this book
The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature
The last thirty years have witnessed one of the most fertile periods in the history of children's the flowering of imaginative illustration and writing, the Harry Potter phenomenon, the rise of young adult and crossover fiction, and books that tackle extraordinarily difficult subjects. The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature provides an indispensable and fascinating reference guide to the world of children's literature. Its 3,500 entries coverevery genre from fairy tales to chapbooks; school stories to science fiction; comics to children's hymns.Originally published in 1983, the Companion has been comprehensively revised and updated by Daniel Hahn. Over 900 new entries bring the book right up to date. A whole generation of new authors and illustrators are showcased, with books like Dogger, The Hunger Games, and Twilight making their first appearance. There are articles on developments such as manga, fan fiction, and non-print publishing, and there is additional information on prizes and prizewinners.This accessible A to Z is the first place to look for information about the authors, illustrators, printers, publishers, educationalists, and others who have influenced the development of children's literature, as well as the stories and characters at their centre. Written both to entertain and to instruct, the highly acclaimed Oxford Companion to Children's Literature is a reference work that no one interested in the world of children's books should be without.
1973 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 26, 2015
14 people are currently reading
217 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Hahn
134 books37 followersBritish writer, editor and translator; author of a number of works of non-fiction, including biographies, history, and reading guides and for children and teenagers.
His translation of The Book of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2007. He is also the translator of Pelé's autobiography, and of work by novelists José Luís Peixoto, Philippe Claudel, María Dueñas, José Saramago, Eduardo Halfon, Gonçalo M. Tavares and others.
A former chair of the Translators Association and national programme director of the British Centre for Literary Translation, he is currently chair of the Society of Authors and on the board of trustees of a number of organisations working with literature, literacy and free expression, including English PEN. He is one of the judges for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize.
adapted from Wikipedia.
His translation of The Book of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2007. He is also the translator of Pelé's autobiography, and of work by novelists José Luís Peixoto, Philippe Claudel, María Dueñas, José Saramago, Eduardo Halfon, Gonçalo M. Tavares and others.
A former chair of the Translators Association and national programme director of the British Centre for Literary Translation, he is currently chair of the Society of Authors and on the board of trustees of a number of organisations working with literature, literacy and free expression, including English PEN. He is one of the judges for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize.
adapted from Wikipedia.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 27, 2015
An absolutely lovely and thoroughly comprehensive volume. Husband and I tested just how comprehensive it was by playing the "I bet this author/book isn't in there" game. The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature almost always won and we had to get extremely obscure before we started winning - down to the level of titles we wouldn't be expecting to be in there anyway. It covers everything you would expect, right from the beginning of the existence of Children's lit to the present day, including the emergence of YA, manga and other extensions of the genre.
This book also benefits from just the right tone, especially in the more recent entries that are (presumably) written wholy by Daniel Hahn. Each individual author and book is spoken of with true affection and a touch of humour (The last sentence of Neil Gaiman's entry is a statement of that authors feelings on cats). Controversies are plainly and definitively acknowledged without being unduly dwelt upon. Hahn's comments on individual movie adaptations are also both astute and witty - he doesn't hold back on passing judgement (good and bad) and I didn't find a single one I didn't agree with.
Overall - an extremely worthwhile volume that any lover of Children's lit should be adding to their bookshelf (or anyone that works with Children's lit, several of my librarian friends are drooling over this one already).
If I have one small critique (and it is very small) it is that there is some inconsistency between authors or titles being entered. At first glance it appears that having multiple well-known titles (or series') deserves an author entry, while having only one of the above means the title/series is entered in its own right. Unfortunately though the system doesn't always hold up and I found myself confused multiple times about where I should be looking to find something in particular. It was always there in the end though. A small problem in an otherwise fairly flawless guide.
*Note: I recieved a copy of this title thanks to Goodreads First Reads. I was not required to write a review and all opinions are certainly my own*
This book also benefits from just the right tone, especially in the more recent entries that are (presumably) written wholy by Daniel Hahn. Each individual author and book is spoken of with true affection and a touch of humour (The last sentence of Neil Gaiman's entry is a statement of that authors feelings on cats). Controversies are plainly and definitively acknowledged without being unduly dwelt upon. Hahn's comments on individual movie adaptations are also both astute and witty - he doesn't hold back on passing judgement (good and bad) and I didn't find a single one I didn't agree with.
Overall - an extremely worthwhile volume that any lover of Children's lit should be adding to their bookshelf (or anyone that works with Children's lit, several of my librarian friends are drooling over this one already).
If I have one small critique (and it is very small) it is that there is some inconsistency between authors or titles being entered. At first glance it appears that having multiple well-known titles (or series') deserves an author entry, while having only one of the above means the title/series is entered in its own right. Unfortunately though the system doesn't always hold up and I found myself confused multiple times about where I should be looking to find something in particular. It was always there in the end though. A small problem in an otherwise fairly flawless guide.
*Note: I recieved a copy of this title thanks to Goodreads First Reads. I was not required to write a review and all opinions are certainly my own*
August 19, 2025
Admittedly, I didn't read it cover to cover, but every day for a month this summer, I opened the book at random places and read the adjacent pages. A lovely resource for learning more about the most famous children's books and authors in the entire English-speaking world, including Australia, the UK, and North America.
May 23, 2017
Very informative!
April 13, 2022
I read the Foreward and Introduction and then skimmed through as needed in the book. It is very thorough and even has an amazing Appendix of award-winning books. What a great resource!
May 4, 2015
So, when I heard that a new edition of The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature was being published I was thrilled. I’m amazed that it didn’t happen sooner. I have checked once or twice, over the years, certain that OUP must have updated it, amazed that it should have taken them thirty years.
So, shiny new edition, edited by Daniel Hahn, writer, editor, translator, chair of the Society of Authors. The thrill of opening it. What’s new? What’s gone?
What’s new is all that you would expect: entries on all your favourite authors, JK Rowling, Lauren Child, Patrick Ness – you name them, you’ll find them, articles about young adult books, about diversity, about translation. The new entries fit well into the quirky, opinionated tone of the original entries that remain. There’s a useful appendix of children’s book prize winners that wasn’t there in the original.
I’m sorry the summaries of literature from other countries have gone. Of course an overview of the whole of a country’s literature in a single column or less was never going to tell you enough, but we are so unaware in Britain of what is going on and has gone on in children’s literature in the rest of the world that it seems a pity to have excised it. Still, perhaps this is a strand for a longer and more detailed work. Hahn says as much himself in the introduction, referencing Jack Zipes’ four-volume Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature (better put that on my wishlist).
I have a few other quibbles. I expect a reference work to be rigourously edited and proof-read, but in the hour or so I spent looking through The Companion, several errors jumped out at me. The cross-references aren’t perfect, with a good number that I checked missed out. In the piece on Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses, the author is referred to by her surname only (and not cross-referenced). The Doctor Who piece is in the wrong place alphabetically (I checked this in the old edition, mostly because I wanted to know if the authors in 1984 had thought Doctor Who was a thing which had a place in this book and found that they did, but that they had titled the entry ‘Dr Who’ and alphabetised it accordingly; the new version had updated the entry, corrected the spelling, but not reordered the entries.)
Quibbles, as I say.
I love The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature. It is a marvellous reference book and an entertaining book to dip into. I shall sit my new edition on the shelf next to the old one. Thirty years of being into children’s books (plus the twenty years before when I just read them). Feeling my age!
So, shiny new edition, edited by Daniel Hahn, writer, editor, translator, chair of the Society of Authors. The thrill of opening it. What’s new? What’s gone?
What’s new is all that you would expect: entries on all your favourite authors, JK Rowling, Lauren Child, Patrick Ness – you name them, you’ll find them, articles about young adult books, about diversity, about translation. The new entries fit well into the quirky, opinionated tone of the original entries that remain. There’s a useful appendix of children’s book prize winners that wasn’t there in the original.
I’m sorry the summaries of literature from other countries have gone. Of course an overview of the whole of a country’s literature in a single column or less was never going to tell you enough, but we are so unaware in Britain of what is going on and has gone on in children’s literature in the rest of the world that it seems a pity to have excised it. Still, perhaps this is a strand for a longer and more detailed work. Hahn says as much himself in the introduction, referencing Jack Zipes’ four-volume Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature (better put that on my wishlist).
I have a few other quibbles. I expect a reference work to be rigourously edited and proof-read, but in the hour or so I spent looking through The Companion, several errors jumped out at me. The cross-references aren’t perfect, with a good number that I checked missed out. In the piece on Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses, the author is referred to by her surname only (and not cross-referenced). The Doctor Who piece is in the wrong place alphabetically (I checked this in the old edition, mostly because I wanted to know if the authors in 1984 had thought Doctor Who was a thing which had a place in this book and found that they did, but that they had titled the entry ‘Dr Who’ and alphabetised it accordingly; the new version had updated the entry, corrected the spelling, but not reordered the entries.)
Quibbles, as I say.
I love The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature. It is a marvellous reference book and an entertaining book to dip into. I shall sit my new edition on the shelf next to the old one. Thirty years of being into children’s books (plus the twenty years before when I just read them). Feeling my age!
April 25, 2015
I was so pleased to have won this book in the Goodreads First Reads Giveaway.
This is quite a heavy book and loved the illustration on the cover. It will take me ages if I were to read through the whole book, but from reading just a few pages, I could see such a lot of useful information about the various authors of children's literature. This book will remain on my library shelf.
This is quite a heavy book and loved the illustration on the cover. It will take me ages if I were to read through the whole book, but from reading just a few pages, I could see such a lot of useful information about the various authors of children's literature. This book will remain on my library shelf.
July 3, 2015
Ok so I have finished my first scan through the book! This is a delightful book which I will come back to again and again, dipping in to check on facts and figures from the children's books I love and adore.
Great compilation.
Great compilation.
March 29, 2017
This book is an absolute must for anyone interested in children's literature. It has over 3,500 entries that have been comprehensively compiled and are very easy to navigate. With Daniel Hahn's expert insight, this title – first published in 1983 – has been painstakingly revised and brought bang up to date, reflecting the seismic changes that have occurred across many aspects of children's publishing in recent years. This edition boasts over 900 new entries to pore over, detailing English-language authors, works, and illustrators from across the world.
Included are authors, illustrators, publishers, the stories themselves (and the characters at their hearts), amongst other key informative entries. This book works well as an invaluable reference guide for those with an interest in the world of children's literature, and also as a fascinating box of delights for the curious-minded. It can be scanned alphabetically for specific entries, of course, but I’ve spent many hours perusing this book at random for the sheer pleasure of it. (And yes, this is perfect Bookseller entertainment.) I've lost significant time between these covers already! I’m particularly fond of the lists of children’s literature prizes and their prize-winners at the back. No bookseller, librarian, publishing person or children's author should be without this reference guide. Keep one close to hand.
Included are authors, illustrators, publishers, the stories themselves (and the characters at their hearts), amongst other key informative entries. This book works well as an invaluable reference guide for those with an interest in the world of children's literature, and also as a fascinating box of delights for the curious-minded. It can be scanned alphabetically for specific entries, of course, but I’ve spent many hours perusing this book at random for the sheer pleasure of it. (And yes, this is perfect Bookseller entertainment.) I've lost significant time between these covers already! I’m particularly fond of the lists of children’s literature prizes and their prize-winners at the back. No bookseller, librarian, publishing person or children's author should be without this reference guide. Keep one close to hand.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews