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Rating: 
Summary: A classic!
Review: It is a classic in the field. It is rather steep, at $49.95, but I think well worth it. Alderson, who revised the 3rd edition, is noted children's book historian in England. It deserves a place on any children's literature reference shelf.If you are interested in a deeper historical perspective of British children's literature, this is the book. As far as a "text" for the history of BRITISH children's book, I think it is one of the best. Here is a description from the book jacket: "Harvey Darton said of his book, first published in 1932, "Not a collection of queer facts or antiquarian scraps," but "a chronicle of the English people in their capacity of parents, guardians and educators of children." Certainly, literature --albeit a "minor literature"--was his central theme, but through it he wove biography and the facts of social and commercial history, the "human aspect." When "Children's Books in England" was published it proved to be a work whose insights and authority transformed our understanding of its subject." In preparing this new edition, therefore, the publishers have been at pains to provide a text that will sustain Darton's reputation for a new generation of readers. The editor, Brian Alderson, has checked the multitude of small details in the book in an effort to ensure that they are accurate by the standards of modern scholarship; he has added a number of bibliographical notes; and, in a supplementary chapter, he has filled out the discussion of children's books during the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, which formed a natural end-point to Harvey Darton's history. In addition, more than sixty new illustrations have been added, in order to expand upon facts and arguments put forward in the text."
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