Scan barcode
A review by ngreader
Minders of Make-Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs, and the Shaping of American Children's Literature by Leonard S. Marcus
4.0
I FINALLY FINISHED IT!!!
This book was a behemoth and very academic, but also SO very good. As a children's library staff member and a former child myself, it was beyond interesting to see how the publishers, authors and books that I love came into being. I never knew the effect that librarians had in the publishing world, how publishing worked in the past and in the future and how the oldest book awards in the game (Newbery and Caldecott) came to be or even who they were named after. I want a copy of this book for myself, so I can mark it up and tag it. One thing that I would've liked to see more of is the work that people of color were (or were not allowed) to do. There are brief mentions of diverse authors of color, librarians of color and publishers of color, but I would've liked to see more. However, the fact that Marcus made sure to include this (in a really broad history book) made me really happy and, considering the length of the book, it makes sense that only brief mentions were available.
This book was a behemoth and very academic, but also SO very good. As a children's library staff member and a former child myself, it was beyond interesting to see how the publishers, authors and books that I love came into being. I never knew the effect that librarians had in the publishing world, how publishing worked in the past and in the future and how the oldest book awards in the game (Newbery and Caldecott) came to be or even who they were named after. I want a copy of this book for myself, so I can mark it up and tag it. One thing that I would've liked to see more of is the work that people of color were (or were not allowed) to do. There are brief mentions of diverse authors of color, librarians of color and publishers of color, but I would've liked to see more. However, the fact that Marcus made sure to include this (in a really broad history book) made me really happy and, considering the length of the book, it makes sense that only brief mentions were available.