1. DD 011-015.999 Tony; 100 Best Books for Children 011.62 STL

It's amazing that the books I read for this Dewey project start out as books that I would have no use for in my daily life...and end up trying to become an expert at, or wanting to learn more about. I guess this is the pitfalls of being a History major. The 100 Best Books for Children, by Anita Silvey, is a beginners guide for anyone who in interested in learning about good-no, great children's books. Written by the editor of Horn Book Magazine and author of other books on the subject of children's literature, this book is an excellent introduction into the world of juvenile fiction (although, Silvey does include a couple of non-fiction books in her book, such as The New way Things Work and Anne Frank: Diary of A Young Girl . Many can benefit from the suggestions made in this book including: Parents starting out a library for their children, teachers and summer camp directors, librarians wanting to create a summer reading program, and children themselves. Even those without children could find a wealth of knowledge with this book. Those young at heart who want to relive their childhood or the book collector who wants to start a children's book library will need to read this book.I enjoyed re-reading about some of my childhood favorites, like Caps For Sale and The Snowman. But don't expect to find many classic titles made before 1900. Peter Pan, The Wizard and Dorothy, and Alice are strangely absent from this list of 100 children's books. Though legends about Snow \pard softlineWhite and John Henry do appear. Silvey also makes it a practice to not focus on anyone Author, which is good. Thus Authors like Dr. Seuss and Beverly Cleary are limited to one entry a piece in this volume. However, this should not prevent a curious reader from reading more from a children's author that they happen to fall in love with. Thankfully, by allowing no more than one book per author to be reviewed, the author has freed herself up to focus on current children's books as well. More current titles include Harry Potter, Tuck Everlasting and A Winkle in Time. Also included in her reviews are background stories about artist collaborations, how an author came up with a character, or how difficult (or easy) it was for a writer to get their works published. Even interesting facts about the writers abound in this work. For example: how many of us knew the Ezra Jack Keats of The Snowy Day fame wasn't black, but in fact a white Jew from the Bronx?This book is highly recommended. But it should be noted that since 100 books doesn't even touch the surface to the wealth of classic children's literature in the world, the reader should not be prejudiced to Anita Silvey if one of their childhood treasures is absent from this book. My all time Favorite, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs was omitted and I still found time to forgive Mrs. Silvey.