A few hours after nine-year-old Garnet Linden finds a silver thimble in the dried-up riverbed, the rains come and end the long drought on the farm. The rains bring safety for the crops and the livestock, and money for Garnet's father. Garnet can't help feeling that the thimble is a magic talisman, for the summer proves to be interesting and exciting in so many different ways. There is the arrival of Eric, an orphan who becomes a member of the Linden family; the building of a new barn; and the county fair at which Garnet's carefully tended pig, Timmy, wins a blue ribbon. Every day brings adventure of some kind to Garnet and her best friend, Citronella. As far as Garnet is concerned, the thimble is responsible for each good thing that happens during this magic summer—her thimble summer.

Put a wealth of information about Newbery award winners and honor books (1922-2001) at your fingertips. You'll find detailed plot summaries, booktalks, updated information about the winning titles and authors, suggestions for read-alikes, and ideas for introducing the books to young readers.

Upon publication, Anita Silvey’s comprehensive survey of contemporary children’s literature, Children’s Books and Their Creators, garnered unanimous praise from librarians, educators, and specialists interested in the world of writing for children. Now The Essential Guide to Children’s Books and Their Creators assembles the best of that volume in one handy, affordable reference, geared specifically to parents, educators, and students. This new volume introduces readers to the wealth of children’s literature by focusing on the essentials — the best books for children, the ones that inform, impress, and, most important, excite young readers. Updated to include newcomers such as J. K. Rowling and Lemony Snicket and to cover the very latest on publishing and educational trends, this edition features more than 475 entries on the best-loved children’s authors and illustrators, numerous essays on social and historical issues, thirty personal glimpses into craft by well-known writers, illustrators, and critics, and invaluable reading lists by category. The Essential Guide to Children’s Books and Their Creators summarizes the canon of contemporary children’s literature, in a practical guide essential for anyone choosing a book for or working with children.

Since 1922, the Newbery Medal of Honor has been awarded to distinguished works of literature for children. Although African and African American characters appeared in children's books well before the establishment of the Newbery award, such depictions were limited, with characters often only appearing as slaves or servants. However, over the last several decades, there has been much progress, and Black characters have played a much more integral role in many highly regarded novels. In African and African American Images in Newbery Award Winning Titles, Binnie Tate Wilkin provides a historical and contextual examination of books with such depictions that have been acknowledged by the nation's most prestigious award for children's literature. Wilkin explores the depictions of African and African American characters in these novels and illuminates the progressive quality of such representations. Wilkin looks closely at such elements as aesthetic descriptions, subservient characterizations, the relationships between characters, and specific language usage to investigate how these images have progressed toward increasingly positive depictions. She also notes, when applicable, the significance of the lack of any African or African American images. This book is an essential resource for those interested in African American studies, children's literature, and the relationship between the two.

This one-of-a-kind collection reminds weary adults not to lose sight of the values and virtues they learned as kids. Here are over three hundred quotations from over two hundred well-loved children's books, such as Charlotte's Web, Peter Pan, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Eloise, Sounder, Number the Stars, and Goodnight Moon, organized by topic, among them Acceptance, Goodness, Family Woes, and Growing Old. On Silence: "I assure you that you can pick up more information when you are listening than when you are talking."--E. B.White, The Trumpet of the Swan. On Reverence: "Dying's part of the wheel, right there next to being born. . . . Being part of the whole thing, that's the blessing."--Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting. With clever illustrations from Pierre Le-Tan, here is a book to share with a friend or keep by your own bedside. It's the perfect gift for your sister, your mother, your brother, your nephew, your kid's teacher, your daughter away at college, your son in the Navy, your mailman, your priest, for the old lady next door, or for the baby just born. Most importantly, give it to yourself. It will help you remember why you loved reading in the first place.

Look behind the scenes, and learn more about the 76 fascinating authors who have garnered the prestigious Newbery Medal since it was established in 1922.

"Bravo! They've given adults and young girls a much-needed treasure map of heroines and 'she-roes'...It blazes an important path in the forest of children's literature."—Jim Trelease.

Getting children to listen is a challenge for even the most seasoned professional. We prepare children for painting by dressing them in a painting smock. How do we prepare children for listening? The activities in this book teach sustainable listening skills, which are important long beyond childhood. Chapters include Activities for Following Directions, Preparing for Listening, Whole Language -- Whole Learning: and What Can Parents Do? Teach children to participate in discussions, learn courtesy, and listen for main ideas. Create a loving link between parent and child with this essential resource guide.

This collection explores the significance of New York City in children’s literature, stressing literary, political, and societal influences on writing for young people from the twentieth century to the present day. Contextualized in light of contemporary critical and cultural theory, the chapters examine the varying ways in which children’s literature has engaged with New York City as a city space, both in terms of (urban) realism and as an ‘idea’, such as the fantasy of the city as a place of opportunity, or other associations. The collection visits not only dominant themes, motifs, and tropes, but also the different narrative methods employed to tell readers about the history, function, physical structure, and conceptualization of New York City, acknowledging the shared or symbiotic relationship between literature and the city: just as literature can give imaginative ‘reality’ to the city, the city has the potential to shape the literary text. This book critically engages with most of the major forms and genres for children/young adults that dialogue with New York City, and considers such authors as Margaret Wise Brown, Felice Holman, E. L. Konigsburg, Maurice Sendak, J. D. Salinger, John Donovan, Shaun Tan, Elizabeth Enright, and Patti Smith.

This volume of Contemporary Authors® New Revision Series brings you up-to-date information on approximately 250 writers. Editors have scoured dozens of leading journals, magazines, newspapers and online sources in search of the latest news and criticism. Writers appearing in this volume include: Stephen E. Ambrose Tom Brokaw Yusef Komunyakaa Alexei Maximovich Peshkov

As a young boy of eight, Cory was told by his uncle Ernest a wonderful story that happened years ago when he was in service, where he met an American boy that was shot down in an airplane in the war of 1937. A romance and love story of two young people that were torn apart by war. Standing at the doorway, Denise and David kissed for the last time. As she put a scarf around his neck, she handed him a tiny silver thimble for luck. He smiled and said, Ill bring it back to you. As bombs fell, so did buildings. Smoke covered the skies. Denise was trapped in the building for days as blood ran from her face and neck. David plane was shot down, and he lost an arm and leg. They lost touch with each other. Both were put in a hospital for months. Soon, Denise and David gave up on ever seeing each other again. That was the end of their love and romance until David came from America, looking to recapture the lost times they had had. Denise, a beautiful French girl, and David, an American boy, wandered apart. Still, he would look at the tiny silver thimble and think of their love and the amazing romance they had as young people in Paris, France.

Writer and artist Malcolm Fawbert writes a series of delightful children's tales in Tales from Thimble Hall based on a real, tiny cottage in England. Thimble Hall in the Peak District, England is a picturesque and tiny cottage. Children living at Thimble Hall ask for a story. Their mother tells them the story about how a Mrs. Stopper searches for the perfect thing to place on the middle of her mantelpiece. Mrs. Stopper discards some bottles one day. A wayward cat knocks a particular bottle out of a box. It rolls down the street, into a river and on to the sea, eventually landing on a beach. A beachcomber finds the bottle and takes it home to build a model ship inside it. Are the bottle's travels over? Where does the bottle end up and will Mrs. Stopper ever find the perfect thing for her mantelpiece? Fawbert writes an exquisite and serendipitous tale that children will absolutely adore. With vivid and beautifully rendered illustrations, this book will become a favorite family read. Malcolm Fawbert lives with his wife in the U.K. His children are now grown and married. Mr. Fawbert has written and illustrated the stories he shared with his own children for his grandchildren and children world-wide to enjoy.

Eleven-year-old Portia and her family return with cousin Julian to the site they visited the previous summer, this time to take possession of a large Victorian house, unoccupied for fifty years and full of treasures and secrets.