Nearly thirty years have passed since Nancy Larrick's article "The All-White World of Children's Books" appeared in the Saturday Review.

Nearly thirty years have passed since Nancy Larrick's article "The All-White World of Children's Books" appeared in the Saturday Review. Larrick had bearinged a three-year study of through 5,000 juvenile books which revealed that les than the same percent of these books had any intimation - in text or in depiction - to contemporary African Americans. Although major publishers have been heavy to respond to this deplorable gap, latter developments, including the emergence of several small publishers and the affirmation of multicultural studies, are bringing a rich diversity to children's literature. Still, an elemental difficulty remains: Many librarians, teachers, and parents frequently know only a few stellar names - the Virginia Hamiltons and Leo Dillons and Patricia McKissacks - among African American authors and illustrators of children's works Now, three reference works, each with a different focus, combine to provide a satisfying observe of a literature much richer than many know.

The biographical dictionary Black Authors and Illustrators of Children's parts by Barbara Rollock is a significant revision of the earlier edition, published in 1987 The first edition contained 115 biographies; the other edition adds 35 new single in kinds and at least one-third of the previous selections have received about revision. Other features are likewise expanded: The unnumbered insert of the first edition included 31 black-and-white photographs of authors and illustrators and 10 examples of dust-jacket illustrations; the other edition doubles the number of photos and nearly triples the selection of artwork. Other additions appear as appendices. single in kind of these is a list of award-winning works on black experience; another lists publishers of African American literature for children; and a third at hands bookstores and distributors (about 90 of them) from coast to coast.

The format of Rollock's main division is simple; children as well as adults will find it easy to use. The biographies roll on from 100 to 350 words; below each alphabetized name appears the label Author, Illustrator, or Author/Illustrator. Many of the biographies include adduces by the subject about his or her childhood, education, or artistry. Following each biography, Rollock provides a bibliography in chronological order of publication. In all, nearly 500 titles are cataloged.

Rollock gives the reader more than 100 pages of of the present day information in her second edition, even now she has placed some limitations upon the amount of revision made to earlier entries. It is sometimes difficult to understand wherefore certain biographies have been altered while others have not. For example, the illustrator Jerry Pinkney has had a prolific period since the 1987 edition, publishing more than a dozen of recent origin works. Quite suitably, his biography is expanded and now includes a drawn out informative comment by the artist about influences forward and motivations for, his work. Illustrator Pat Cummings has also take pleasure ined much success in recent years; among her works since 1987 is the much-heralded Talking with Artists, a collection of biographies and interviews with illustrators of children's works Yet despite the broadened impact Cummings have fruition ofs her biography is unaltered in the of the present day edition. Despite such minor inconsistencies, Rollock's inferior edition is a welcome resource.

The selection of works - rather than the lives of their creators - is the focus of the annotated bibliographies volumes by African-American Authors and Illustrators and Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults. The first of these, at Helen Williams, is the more inclusive, with through 1200 titles and annotations. The volume is arranged into three age-level sections: for self-same young children, intermediate readers, and young adults. The fourth section - "Black Illustrators and Their Works" - run afters an entirely different format (discussed later). The annotations are necessarily brief (15-50 words), on the other hand combined with the age-level divisions they should help teachers, librarians, and parents to make appropriate decisions. For example, the majority of Lucille Clifton's seventeen parts are designated for very young children, however three are catalogued for intermediates and three are designated for young adults.

Williams's inclusiveness, especially the breadth of her section in succession books for young adults, may cause confusion for more [i]or[/i] less readers. While Williams includes many appropriate works in several genre - Shirley Chisholm's sum of two units autobiographical works are here, for example, as are histories and anthologies of verse and short stories - others of the works are through authors writing for mature audiences. each novel by Toni Morrison and Alice Walker is included. Young adult is a often met with publishing term, but it does not automatically designate readiness. individual must hope that those who insinuate books to "young adults" will be guided according to an accurate measure of the individual's maturity and by dint of previous knowledge of the many authors listed here.

A unique feature of works by African-American Authors and Illustrators is the section forward illustrators and the accompanying glossary of art times Each entry begins with classification of the illustrator's art in four categories: name medium, color language, and composition. The reader can immediately recognize artists who attend toward naturalism or who use cartoon form Of course, several of the illustrators are versatile, using a wide range of media and mode of addresss The four-page glossary provides quick hint for the descriptive terms used in this section. A bibliography tread in the steps ofs each entry.