Michele Landsberg's Guide to Children's Books

by Michele Landsberg

274 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Michele Landsberg's Guide to Children's Books (published in 1986, so Michele Landsberg's Guide to Children's Books was thus released prior to the worldwide phenomenon of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels and that Landsberg will naturally not be listing and discussing any children's literature post the mid 1980s either) has been rather a personal disappointment for me (and that very much regarding Michele Landsberg's Guide to Children's Books just seems to frustrate particularly both my inner child and even more so my inner teenager but also my adult reading self as well).

And yes, there are three main bones of of textual contention for me regarding Michele Landsberg's Guide to Children's Books. For one, Landsberg's discursive, densely penned but sadly not at all chronological and as such often kind of all over the place and somewhat unorganised listing of many of her personal children's literature favourites (mostly American and British, with some Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and a very few non originally English language examples) and the discussions of various children's literature genres such picture books, first novels, humour, finding one's identity type of books, adventure, fantasy, time travel, coming of age and so-called contemporary problem novels is decently interesting but at the same time kind of reader unfriendly and thus also more than somewhat frustrating (primarily due to the choppiness pointed out and explained above).

For two and much more of an issue in my not at all humble opinion, there is way way too much of an infuriatingly arrogant, nagging, aggravatingly childishly petulant holier than thou and my way or the proverbial highway author attitude and narrative tone being rather omnipresent in Michele Landsberg's Guide to Children's Books and with Landsberg's text for me clearly (and annoyingly) not only stating which children's books I (or rather everyone) should be reading and what parents, teachers etc. should be sharing with their children, their students etc., but indeed and ridiculously so, that for those authors Michele Landsberg clearly cannot stand, such as for example Judy Blume, Paula Danziger and Roald Dahl (as well as a few others), well, obviously NO ONE should be reading these authors AT ALL and that there to and for me is a really palpable attitude in Michele Landsberg's Guide to Children's Books of Landsberg not only despising especially Judy Blume, Paula Danziger and Roald Dah as both authors and equally as persons but that there also is a rather horrible undercurrent of demanding that parents, teachers, librarians et al actually need to restrict children from reading books that QUEEN MICHELE does not approve of and to ignore and reject those authors she personally despises. And yes, although Landsberg does not in fact demand there be book banning and censorship, there is certainly for me an attitude that young readers should not be encouraged and should sometimes not even be permitted to read the children's authors considered anathema in Michele Landsberg's Guide to Children's Books (and who and whose oeuvres are also pretty relentlessly and often hugely viciously being trashed by Landsberg).

And for three, since Michele Landsberg obviously has specific issues with Road Dahl supposedly being anti Semitic because he was rather openly critical of Israel (and that this seems to be one of the main reasons why ALL of Dahl's children's books are so roundly condemned in Michele Landsberg's Guide to Children's Books), I do have to wonder why Landsberg then waxes so ecstatically about British children's author William Mayne (considering that Mayne is or rather was a convicted pedophile who was jailed for having sexually abused a large number of young girls and who always until the end of his life justified and made excuses for this, and that yes, it does make me feel really uncomfortable and icky to read all the ridiculous accolades for William Mayne in Michele Landsberg's Guide to Children's Books and that Landsberg strongly recommends five of Mayne's novels, but considers everything that two of my favourite children's authors, that what Judy Blume and Pauls Danziger have penned to be problematic at best and somehow even inappropriate and something offensive, to be challenged, wow, just wow, I do have to, I must say).

Finally, and just to say, the only reason why my rating for Michele Landsberg's Guide to Children's Books is still two and is no one star is that I find the list of children's books with short and not too spoilerlish reviews from pages 196 to 264 decently useable (but that I also do not really recommend Michele Landsberg's Guide to Children's Books and find Landsberg's attitude arrogantly entitled and often utterly and majorly ridiculous).

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michele Landsberg’s Guide to Children’s Books, published in 1986, is overdue for an update – think Harry Potter - but still very useful. As Landsberg states: “Many of the works I’ve written about are now, horribly enough, out of print. Some of them, even recent titles, are going out of print as I’m writing… so that even if I wanted to write a book recommending only current titles, it would be physically impossible to do so.”

Landsberg acknowledges, wisely, that it is virtually impossible to list the best books for each age group when she knows “twelve-year-olds who read Winnie-the-Pooh with delight, six-year-olds who zoom through Tolkien and six-year-olds who are just cutting their teeth, so to speak, on sophisticated picture books…. For that reason, I’ve tackled this dauntingly huge subject matter by theme, rather than age group.” That said, at the end of the book she does provide “A Treasury of Children’s Books from ages four years to thirteen and up. She also includes “an equal balance of books in which boys and girls play active, central roles.”

In her introduction Landsberg expresses her hope …that through this book, many more adults will be persuaded to discover not only how literature can enhance a child’s life, but what surprising delights await the adult who can unbend enough to read along with the child. More, I hope to show, step by step, how any adult can become skilled and confident in choosing the best books for the particular child he or she has in mind. I do discuss some approaches to learning how to read… but this is primarily a book on the “why” and the “what”, not the “how” of children’s reading.

Chapters 2-9 cover the following topics: books to encourage the beginning reader; first novels; liberating laughter; the quest for identity; adventure: the great game; fantasy; traveling in time; and growing up.

If you are a teacher, a parent, or concerned relative or friend who cares what the kids you’re connected with read, or perhaps even the fact that they are not reading, Michele Landsberg’s Guide to Children’s Books is a must.