Choosing Books for Children: A Commonsense Guide

by Betsy Hearne, Deborah Stevenson

Recommends the best books for every age level, from preschool to young adult, featuring more than 300 annotated selections from diverse genres and guidelines for parents and librarians on selecting titles.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Parenting

229 pages, Hardcover

First published July 21, 1982

About the author

Betsy Hearne is the author of numerous articles and books, including Choosing Books for Children: A Commonsense Guide, the folktale anthology Beauties and Beasts, fiction for both children and young adults, and picture books—one of which, Seven Brave Women, won the Jane Addams Children's Book Award. The former children's book editor of Booklist and of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, she has reviewed books for almost forty years and contributes regularly to The Horn Book Magazine.

Hearne was the former Director of The Center for Children's Books and a professor emerita in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she taught children's literature and storytelling for many years.

Reviews

[Erica Nicol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Betsy Hearne is my Yoda of children's literature. While the bibliographies in this book are now dated (dated, but still highly useable), the principles and suggestions for choosing books are excellent and extremely helpful. Hearne's writing is engaging, encouraging, and highly readable. If you don't have much experience reading or selecting children's books, this is an excellent starting place. And if you do have experience, this is still an excellent reference to keep around.

[AnnaBnana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obviously the bibliographies are a little dated, but the things worth considering when choosing good children's books don't change. Really super.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hearne has her finger on the pulse of children's literature. Her reviews and recommendations are spot on.

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great reference!

[Kathleen]

Advice for selecting books for children. Easy to follow chapter guides.
Controversial Children's Books chapter

[Gerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

very informitive

[Rebecca Little · Rating 4 out of 5]

This gave me a list of books to get out of the library for my girls. A great reference.