The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature

Book excerpt: The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature celebrates the richness and variety of over 350 years of literary works for children. This groundbreaking anthology includes 170 authors and illustrators of alphabets and animal fables, fairy tales and fantasy, picture books and nursery verse, among many other genres. Here readers will find beloved works by Charles Perrault, Lewis Carroll, J. M. Barrie, L. M. Montgomery, and Dr. Seuss along with historical classics; The New-England Primer and Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses; and major voices from the multicultural and global contemporary scene. Over 40 longer complete works and over 400 illustrations, including 60 in color, enhance this comprehensive and visually rich anthology. With introductions that offer fresh insights into the cultural contexts of children's literature and childhood itself over four centuries, author headnotes, annotations, bibliographies, and a timeline,The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature illuminates a literary tradition whose power to instruct and delight is both centuries old and startlingly new. Slipcased paperback original.