A Guide to Canadian Children's Books in English

by Deirdre Baker, Ken Setterington

Experts select the very best of Canadian children’s books in English

This is an entertaining and easy-to-use guide to the very best in Canadian children’s books for parents, grandparents, teachers, librarians, and anyone else interested in the field. The first book of its kind in Canada, it deals with over 500 recommended titles, all by Canadian writers and illustrators, selected by two recognized experts. Organized by age and genre, it includes chapters on board books, concept books, picture books, traditional tales, poetry and rhyming stories, books for beginning readers, novels for those aged 7 to 12 and those 12 and up, as well as non-fiction books.

Each entry gives bibliographic information and then a short summary of the book, a critical assessment, and the reason for its inclusion. Detailed indexes allow the user to find books based on author, title, subject matter, locale in which the story occurs, and area in Canada in which the author lives.

This is an invaluable guide for those who use children’s books in their work or for those who want to select the perfect book for a special child.

Genres: Reference, Books About Books, Nonfiction

350 pages, Hardcover

First published April 22, 2003

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deirdre Baker and Ken Setterington's A Guide to Canadian Children’s Books in English is a very good general resource. However, just to point out that with a publication date of 2003, an updated and more current edition of A Guide to Canadian Children’s Books in English is in my opinion becoming rather a necessity and that I also do tend to think that many if not in fact most of the presented reviews encountered in A Guide to Canadian Children’s Books in English are probably just a wee a bit too spoilerish, something that does not actually bother me personally all that much, but is definitely something that needs to be mentioned as a caveat for A Guide to Canadian Children’s Books in English (since encountering spoilers can be a huge textual turn-off). And yes, in particular (at least for me) for far far too many of the board, concept and picture books being showcased in A Guide to Canadian Children’s Books in English the presented reviews are often so extensively and all encompassingly specific and detailed that sadly reading the stories Baker and Setterington are focussing on does almost become kind of and annoyingly, frustratingly redundant (and which for me should not really happen, since I want a book like A Guide to Canadian Children’s Books in English to mostly simply introduce books, to pique reading interest but certainly not to make reading the book or the books in question almost unnecessary).

Now I do like the set-up of A Guide to Canadian Children’s Books in English and that the book is organised by age and also by genre, with twelve chapters featuring board books, concept books, picture books, traditional tales, poetry and rhyming stories, books for beginning readers, novels for ages seven to twelve, short story collections and anthologies for ages seven to twelve, series, novels for ages twelve and onwards, short story collections for ages twelve and onwards and also a non-fiction section. However, the non-fiction chapter for A Guide to Canadian Children’s Books in English is annoyingly and frustratingly limited and that I thus think Deidre Baker and Ken Setterington should either be as extensive with Canadian non-fiction books for children in A Guide to Canadian Children’s Books in English as they are with regard to fiction or to not be presenting any non-fiction at all in A Guide to Canadian Children’s Books in English (and to instead create a separate Canadian non-fiction guide for children).

With very good but also never overwhelming annotations, sources etc., yes, A Guide to Canadian Children’s Books in English is informative as well as easy to use and I do wish that I could rate A Guide to Canadian Children’s Books in English with more than three stars (but well, in particular those above mentioned spoilers are rather annoying). Still highly recommend is A Guide to Canadian Children’s Books in English as long as potential readers and users take into account that non-fiction comes extremely short in A Guide to Canadian Children’s Books in English, that there have unfortunately not been any updates and that therefore nothing beyond 2003 will unfortunately be focused on and discussed by Deirdre Baker and Ken Setterington in A Guide to Canadian Children’s Books in English.

[Virginia]

I don't know how to give this a star review. I did find it interesting, and helpful for working at the library, but it's obviously a bit out of date, and there are a few big omissions (Hatchet should be there, even if Paulsen isn't Canadian; Charles de Lint as one brief, not very favorable mention)....