Journey through a magical woodland, with poems to read and things to find My woodland’s full of animals, of every different kind. So shall we stay here for a while and see what we can find? Experience the everyday wonder of nature in this first book of poetry, exploring a magical woodland year. With poems by acclaimed writer Rachel Piercey, join Bear on his journey from spring to winter with lots of friends to meet, places to explore, and things to spot along the way.
Offers readers a view of the quality and diversity of nineteenth-century American children's poetry. Complemented by period illustrations, this collection includes work by poets from all geographical regions, as well as rarely seen poems by immigrant and ethnic writers and by children themselves.
Runner-up of the Katherine Briggs Folklore Award 2017 Winner of the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Myth & Fantasy Studies 2019 This book examines the creative uses of “Celtic” myth in contemporary fantasy written for children or young adults from the 1960s to the 2000s. Its scope ranges from classic children’s fantasies such as Lloyd Alexander’s The Chronicles of Prydain and Alan Garner’s The Owl Service, to some of the most recent, award-winning fantasy authors of the last decade, such as Kate Thompson (The New Policeman) and Catherine Fisher (Darkhenge). The book focuses on the ways these fantasy works have appropriated and adapted Irish and Welsh medieval literature in order to highlight different perceptions of “Celticity.” The term “Celtic” itself is interrogated in light of recent debates in Celtic studies, in order to explore a fictional representation of a national past that is often romanticized and political.
Reimagining Indians investigates a group of Anglo-American writers whose books about Native Americans helped reshape Americans' understanding of Indian peoples at the turn of the twentieth century. Hailing from the Eastern United States, these men and women traveled to the American West and discovered "exotics" in their midst. Drawn to Indian cultures as alternatives to what they found distasteful about modern American culture, these writers produced a body of work that celebrates Indian cultures, religions, artistry, and simple humanity. Although these writers were not academically trained ethnographers, their books represent popular versions of ethnography. In revealing their own doubts about the superiority of European-American culture, they sought to provide a favorable climate for Indian cultural survival in a world indisputably dominated by non-Indians. They also encouraged notions of cultural relativism, pluralism, and tolerance in American thought. For the historian and general reader alike, this volume speaks to broad themes of American cultural history, Native American history, and the history of the American West.
"A careful selection of children's and young adult books with multicultural themes and topics which were published in the United States and Canada between 1991 and 1996"--Preface, p. vii.
Fully updated in its 2nd edition, this comprehensive and accessible book is a one-stop introductory text for those entering the field of early childhood studies and early years. Scholarly, and engagingly written, it covers all the key contemporary debates from child development, language acquisition and play to professional practice, health and wellbeing and diversity and inclusion. The new edition includes two new chapters on fostering creativity and sustainability. It covers the urgent post-pandemic need for early childhood practitioners to lead the remedial work for the 2020 generation of babies who lost valuable socialisation opportunities and includes discussion of the current 'schoolification' of early childhood and the pursuit of data as a driver of education and care provision. It also examines the impact of health and income inequalities, Covid-19, global neoliberal policies and Brexit on the early childhood landscape. An excellent all rounder, it covers everything a student of early childhood will need. Each of the eighteen chapters has at least one global case study, and includes reflective exercises, topics for discussion, assignments and further reading lists. Throughout the book, vital connections are made between theory and practice to help students prepare for a career working with a diverse community of children, parents and professionals.