This fully revised and expanded edition of Lorrie Kim's classic work digs deep into the life and legend of Severus Snape, fan-favorite of the Harry Potter series

While the Harry Potter series may follow the journey of the Boy Who Lived, if you want to know the whole story, keep your eyes fixed on Severus Snape. This greasy-haired, grumpy genius, one of J.K. Rowling's most enduring gifts to English literature, is the archetypal ill-tempered teacher: demanding, acerbic, and impossible to ignore. Over the span of seven novels, Snape's remarkable role in the series can be hard to parse: Where do his true allegiances lie? Can a former Death Eater change his spots? Why does he seem to loathe the boy he's pledged to protect?

Taking an analytical approach to Hogwarts's irascible, protective Potions professor, author Lorrie Kim presents a closer look at how Dumbledore's double agent operates behind the scenes throughout the Harry Potter series. By examining the story from Snape's point of view, this in-depth exploration pierces the defenses of the wizarding world's famed Occlumens, revealing the man for who he truly is: one of pop culture's most memorable heroes.

Do you remember the first time you fell in love with a book?

The stories we read as children extend far beyond our childhoods; they are a window into our deepest hopes, joys and anxieties. They reveal our past - collective and individual, remembered and imagined - and invite us to dream up different futures.

In a pioneering history of children's literature, from the ancient world to the present day, Sam Leith reveals the magic of our most cherished stories, and the ways in which they have shaped and consoled entire generations. Excavating the complex lives of beloved writers, Leith offers a humane portrait of a genre - one acutely sensitive to its authors' distinct contexts.

A brilliant investigation into the motivations and methods behind the actions of Hogwarts's renowned Headmaster!

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, is one of the most recognizable and mysterious figures in the Harry Potter series. As an unscrupulous beetle-like journalist once said, he's a biographer's dream. Is he omniscient or limited? Is he benevolent or malevolent? What really drove him in the last years of an extraordinary life?

Dumbledore dives between the lines of the Harry Potter books to create a portrait of the controversial Headmaster. We find Dumbledore's hand in every seeming coincidence, and consider the impossible decisions he had to make. This in-depth examination from author Irvin Khaytman casts the events of the Harry Potter series in a whole new light, resolving fans' questions that linger to this day.

From Pinocchio to The Chronicles of Narnia to Charlotte's Web, classic children's tales have shaped generations of young people. In recent years, homeschoolers and new classical schools have put these masterpieces of children's literature at the center of their curricula. And these stories continue to be embraced by parents, students, and educators alike.

In Tending the Heart of Virtue, Vigen Guroian illuminates the power of classic tales and their impact on the moral imagination. He demonstrates how these stories teach the virtues through vivid depictions of the struggle between good and evil, while he also unveils components of the good, the true, and the beautiful in plot and character. With clarity and elegance, Guroian reads deeply into the classic stories. He demonstrates how these stories challenge and enliven the moral imaginations of children. And he shows the reader how to get inside of classic stories and communicate their lessons to the child.

For more than two decades Tending the Heart of Virtue has been embraced by parents, guardians, and teachers for whom the stories it discusses are not only beloved classics but repositories of moral wisdom. This revised and expanded second edition includes three new chapters in which Guroian interprets such stories as Hans Christian Andersen's The Ugly Duckling, the Grimms' Cinderella, and John Ruskin's The King of the Golden River. The concluding bibliographical essay has also been expanded.

Immigrationis at once a personal, immediate, and urgent issue that plays a central role in the United States' perception of itself. In The Documented Child, scholar Maya Socolovsky demonstrates how the portrayal of Latinx children has shifted over the first two decades of the twenty-first century in literary texts aimed at children and young adults and looks at how these shifts map onto broader changes in immigration policy and discourse.

Through a critical inquiry into picture books and middle-grade and young adult literature, Socolovsky argues that the literary documentations of--and for--U.S. Latinx children have shifted over the decades, from an emphasis on hybrid transnationalism to that of a more American-oriented self. Socolovsky delves into texts written from 1997 to 2020, a period marked by tremendous changes in U.S. immigration policies, amplified discourses around nationhood, and an increasingly militarized border. The author shows how children's and young adult books have shifted their depictions of the border, personal and national identity, and sovereignty.

For students, scholars, and educators of Latinx studies and children's literature, this work shows how the creators of children's literature reflect new strategies for representing the undocumented Latinx child protagonist. While earlier books document the child as a transnational (sometimes global) subject, later books document her as both a transnational and U.S. national subject. The Documented Child explores this change as a necessary survival strategy, reflecting current awareness that cultural hybridity and transnational identity are not sufficient stand-ins for the stability and security of legal personhood.

Parables from Nature is an important collection of stories by Margaret Gatty. This publication, being the complete collection of parables for children and inspired by nature includes all twenty-nine stories from four originally published volumes, and presented here in one single volume. This is an excellent book for those interested in obtaining this complete collection of Parables from Nature and for those who are fans of the writing of author Margaret Gatty.

Between Worlds: The Art and Design of Leo Lionni opens at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA, on November 18, 2023.

Leo Lionni (1910-1999) was a key figure of postwar visual culture, who believed that a smart, pithy design language could unite people across generations and cultural boundaries. He first achieved success in the field of graphic design, serving as the influential art director of Fortune magazine from 1948 to 1960 and personally executing such innovative designs as the catalogue for the Museum of Modern Art's seminal photo exhibition The Family of Man. Then, in the 1960s, he embarked on an equally groundbreaking career in picture books, using torn-paper collages to illustrate modern animal fables such as Frederick and Swimmy, which are still beloved today. But even as his books won multiple Caldecott Honors, Lionni--who had begun as a painter--also maintained a fine art practice centered on his Parallel Botany, a richly imagined world of fanciful plants.

This volume, the catalogue of a major exhibition at the Norman Rockwell Museum, is the first to present Lionni's extraordinary career in the round. Written by leading scholars and with an introduction by the artist's granddaughter, it is illustrated with abundant examples of his work, including many little-seen items from the Lionni family archives. Leo Lionni: Storyteller, Artist, Designer will be an important, and eye-opening, contribution to the history of art and design.

This exceptional volume celebrates one of the greatest heroes in world cultural heritage: the Little Prince.

Created in conjunction with some of the story's greatest connoisseurs, this visual dictionary presents every aspect of The Little Prince: a behind-the-scenes look at the writing of the tale and its publication; the secrets of an unpublished chapter; rare illustrations by the author; photographs of the original manuscript; a guide to all the main characters, settings, and objects, and more.

This is the story of a timeless tale for readers both young and old; it is the chronicle of a philosophical fable that has marked--and changed--the lives of generations of enthusiastic readers; it is the saga of a cult classic, second only to the Bible as the world's bestselling book.

From its first edition published in the United States in 1943 to its recent adaptation as an animated feature film, discover the incredible success of author Saint-Exupéry's masterpiece, The Little Prince.

This official album also includes--for the very first time--the numerous tributes paid to this admirable story, including films and animated cartoon series, musicals, graphic novels, and merchandising.

Between 1967 and 1972, a previously obscure group of authors entered the US cultural spotlight. During this five-year period, at least thirty anthologies of poetry and prose by African American, Latinx, Asian American, and Native American children came out of adult-led workshops, classrooms, and sites of juvenile incarceration. Mass-market publishers, independent imprinters, and local mimeograph machines produced volumes with titles such as I Am Somebody! and The Me Nobody Knows: Children's Voices from the Ghetto. These young writers actively participated in the Black Arts Movement, and some collaborated with well-known adult authors, most prominently June Jordan. Their anthologies gained national media coverage, occasionally became bestsellers, were quoted by James Baldwin, and even inspired a hit Broadway musical. While writings by children had long attracted adult attention, this flurry of youth writing and publishing was distinguished by the widespread belief that children of color from poor and working-class neighborhoods were uniquely able to speak truth about American racism and inequality.

Focusing on Black and Latinx youth authorship within New York City, and using deep archival research and elegant close readings, Amy Fish examines child-authored texts of this era within the context of their literary production and reception. These young writers were often supervised and edited by white adults, raising concerns about the authenticity and agency of their voices. Fish contends that young authors themselves shared these concerns and that they employed savvy rhetorical strategies of address, temporality, and trope to self-consciously interrogate the perils and possibilities of their adult-influenced work. Young writers thus contributed to the era's important debates about the nature of authorship and readership within a racist society, while also using their writing as an intimate occasion of self-discovery.

This book was a gift from the universe to me. Involving my grandchildren in creating the many charming and beautiful critters in Mermville. Working together to build a loving community and then sharing it with humans. A heartwarming story of love and circumstances that bring the community together

From classics to new favorites, 100 Best Books for Children points parents in the right direction [to] 100 titles no child should miss (Booklist). With thirty-five years of experience at the heart of children's publishing, Anita Silvey is better equipped than anyone to help parents make the right reading choices, given the enormous range of children's books available today. From board books to titles for older readers, Silvey narrows the field to 100 best books, organizing them by age and providing essays on plot summary, along with fascinating insights into the story behind the story that only an insider would know.
Essential and inspiring, 100 Best Books for Children is a perfect handbook for parents who want to help their child develop a passion for reading that will last a lifetime.

Contributions by Frederick Luis Aldama, Trevor Boffone, T. Jackie Cuevas, Cristina Herrera, Alexander Lalama, Angel Daniel Matos, Regina Marie Mills, Joseph Isaac Miranda, Jesus Montaño, Domino Renee Pérez, Regan Postma-Montaño, Cristina Rhodes, and Sonia Alejandra Rodríguez

Atravesados: Essays on Queer Latinx Young Adult Literature shows how Latinx queer YA writers discard the same old story, and offer critical representations of queerness that broaden YA writing and insist on the presence of queer teens of color. Atravesados draws on foundational Chicana queer theorist Gloria Anzaldúa's notion of atravesados to speak to the spectrum of queer youth Latinidades as they materialize in YA literature. Los atravesados, according to Anzaldúa, are the squint-eyed, the perverse, the queer, the troublesome, the mongrel, the mulato, the half-breed, the half dead; in short, those who cross over, pass over, or through the confines of the 'normal.' Los atravesados reside in the borderlands space of ni de aquí ni de allá, neither here nor there, present yet liminal, their queerness the very source of both frustration and empowerment, a paradox of joy and tragedy. Although written in 1987, Anzaldúa's theory speaks to the realities of queer Latinx teens that fill the pages of YA literature well into the twenty-first century. Characters such as Juliet from Gabby Rivera's Juliet Takes a Breath, Aaron from Adam Silvera's More Happy Than Not, or the titular Chulito from Charles Rice-Gonzales's novel encompass the highs, lows, and everything in-betweenness of queer Latinx teen lived experiences. This collection tells their stories.

Contributors speak to the spectrum of queer youth Latinidades as they materialize in YA literature, paying close attention to representation and the ways youth are portrayed--whether accurate or stereotypical. Close attention is paid to books that succeed in broadening the field of YA, highlighting authors that draw from their own lived experiences and situate strong, fully developed characters. Taken together, these essays move beyond the page, explaining to readers why representation and authenticity matter in YA literature, as well as the far-reaching effects they can have for real world queer Latinx teens.

Racism is resilient, duplicitous, and endlessly adaptable, so it is no surprise that America is again in a period of civil rights activism. A significant reason racism endures is because it is structural: it's embedded in culture and in institutions. One of the places that racism hides-and thus perhaps the best place to oppose it-is books for young people.

Was the Cat in the Hat Black? presents five serious critiques of the history and current state of children's literature tempestuous relationship with both implicit and explicit forms of racism. The book fearlessly examines topics both vivid-such as The Cat in the Hat's roots in blackface minstrelsy-and more opaque, like how the children's book industry can perpetuate structural racism via whitewashed covers even while making efforts to increase diversity. Rooted in research yet written with a lively, crackling touch, Nel delves into years of literary criticism and recent sociological data in order to show a better way forward. Though much of what is proposed here could be endlessly argued, the knowledge that what we learn in childhood imparts both subtle and explicit lessons about whose lives matter is not debatable. The text concludes with a short and stark proposal of actions everyone-reader, author, publisher, scholar, citizen- can take to fight the biases and prejudices that infect children's literature. While Was the Cat in the Hat Black? does not assume it has all the answers to such a deeply systemic problem, its audacity should stimulate discussion and activism.

The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday - but never jam to-day.

Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There was first published in December 1871 (dated 1872). Although Carroll intended Looking-Glass to be a follow-up piece to the immediately successful Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), he created an entirely new fantasy world with a revised narrative structure. The twelve-chapter format was retained, but Looking-Glass is significantly longer than Wonderland (224 compared to 192 pages in the first editions), and introduces a range of new characters, and is framed by Alice's progression across a chess board to become queen.

This new edition focuses solely on Through the Looking-Glass, with a penetrating and informative introduction by Zoe Jaques, including the most recent research and critical opinion on the subject matter.

Before Austen Comes Aesop presents an in-depth examination of the Children's Great Books, that is, the literature that has made the most profound impact on the lives of children throughout Western history. In addition to its invaluable chronological list of titles, from ancient times to the present, the book provides both students and their parents the guidance they need to read leisurely or study formally the Children's Great Books at home.

The book's premise is that children often do not spend enough time with the literature written or adapted for them before diving into adult works. An experienced teacher, the author argues that children benefit in many ways from lingering longer over literature created for them.

The Children's Great Books list includes the classic works that, while not written strictly for children, were orally passed on to them for generations and are foundational for understanding Western culture. These works include Greek and Roman fables, myths, and epics; European legends, sagas, folk stories, and fairy tales; and the Bible. The list also includes the acclaimed works written specifically for children, beginning in the age of the first printing presses and continuing into the late twentieth century.

Additionally, acknowledging the changes in children's literature that have occurred since the mid-1960s, the author provides helpful information for discerning which contemporary influential books are appropriate, or perhaps inappropriate, for one's children. She also includes several appendices that are useful for the study of literature at both the elementary and the secondary levels.

'I seemed to gaze upon a vast space, the limits of which extended far beyond my vision...'

This anthology gathers together seventeen gripping tales from the nineteenth and early twentieth century that make up the foundations of science fiction. It moves from Mary Shelley to H. G. Wells, from Edgar Allan Poe to W. E. B. Du Bois, and from George Eliot to Jack London. Before the term 'science fiction' was established, writers pursued a new and strange subject matter, to be written about in a startlingly new way. The selected stories in this collection reflect the many diverse paths that led towards science fiction, including scientific Gothic, dystopian fantasies, psychological hoaxes, feminist parables, fictions of time-travel, adventure stories, uncanny tales, and stories of alien encounters. The anthology unveils the power of the literature of the period and exposes our fascination with scientific discovery and the allure (and threat) of the imagined future.

This edition includes an introduction by Michael Newton setting out the themes of the tales and exploring the development of science fiction. Newton explores how the stories engage with anxiety about the limits of the rational mind, the fact of Empire and the discoveries of anthropology, the uneasy figure of the scientist, the rapid development of technology, and the presence of the alien other.

ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

This Very Short Introduction provides a lively and comprehensive discussion of children's literature--what it is, why it is interesting, how it contributes to culture, and how it is studied as literature. Reynolds provides a general overview of the history of the subject as it has developed in English, at the same time introducing key debates, developments, and figures in the field. Reynolds demonstrates how writing for children--whether on page or screen--has helped in shaping ideas about culture, society and childhood. She also raises questions about the future of children's literature generally and discusses the shape that it might take.

Winner, 2022 Children's Literature Association Book Award, given by the Children's Literature Association

Winner, 2020 World Fantasy Awards

Winner, 2020 British Fantasy Awards, Nonfiction

Finalist, Creative Nonfiction IGNYTE Award, given by FIYACON for BIPOC+ in Speculative Fiction

Reveals the diversity crisis in children's and young adult media as not only a lack of representation, but a lack of imagination

Stories provide portals into other worlds, both real and imagined. The promise of escape draws people from all backgrounds to speculative fiction, but when people of color seek passageways into the fantastic, the doors are often barred. This problem lies not only with children's publishing, but also with the television and film executives tasked with adapting these stories into a visual world. When characters of color do appear, they are often marginalized or subjected to violence, reinforcing for audiences that not all lives matter.

The Dark Fantastic is an engaging and provocative exploration of race in popular youth and young adult speculative fiction. Grounded in her experiences as YA novelist, fanfiction writer, and scholar of education, Thomas considers four black girl protagonists from some of the most popular stories of the early 21st century: Bonnie Bennett from the CW's The Vampire Diaries, Rue from Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games, Gwen from the BBC's Merlin, and Angelina Johnson from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter. Analyzing their narratives and audience reactions to them reveals how these characters mirror the violence against black and brown people in our own world.

In response, Thomas uncovers and builds upon a tradition of fantasy and radical imagination in Black feminism and Afrofuturism to reveal new possibilities. Through fanfiction and other modes of counter-storytelling, young people of color have reinvisioned fantastic worlds that reflect their own experiences, their own lives. As Thomas powerfully asserts, we dark girls deserve more, because we are more.