Literature in Art Books

I read this book during the summer and changed my Chidren's Literature syllabus to begin the course with the reality of illiteracy and aliteracy in this country. There is no acceptable excuse for the level of illiteracy that this country has, having dropped to 27th of the United Nations countries, but the levels of aliteracy are even more frightening because they reflect on the methods used in teaching reading and on citizens being willing to be spoon fed what is happening within their world by the media or any group that wants to do so.

This collection is outstanding: it is so much more than any single author could possibly
do and, as it is carefully curated and connected (using bridge mini-essays
between chapters), it connects as a treatise on the topic. The only weak
contribution, in my reading, is the essay on Nella Larsen; though it is
interesting to to read about how Larsen's type changed as a way of making
her more appealing to contemporary scholars, that argument (and the aligned one
about connections w/ Von Vectin) cannot compare to the complexity of the
other chapters. Each chapter is outstanding. Includes chapters on the typography of the King James bible, Poe, Whitman, comics, etc. Very comprehensive.

The Illustrated Child is a celebration of children as seen by illustrators of books and magazines, posters and advertisements, chapbooks and comic strips for over 450 years. The list of 67 Illustrators includes: Nancy Ekholm Burkert, Albrecht Durer, George Cruikshank, Thomas Bewick, Sir John Tenniel, Kate Greenaway, Randolph Caldecott, Jessie Wilcox Smith, Hugh Thomson, Thomas Crane, Edmund Dulac, Arthur Rackham, Carl Larsson, Maud and Miska Petersham, Garth Williams, Hugh Lofting, Ernest Shepard, W. W., Denslow, Maurice Boutet de Monvel, Maxfield Parrish, Edward Ardizzone and many anonymous others. A lovely book.

This book has one of the best introductions ever written. It begins with something like,"The first time I met Marguerite Henry she was tucked under the arms of children at the rim of the Grand Canyon." It goes one to express the experiences and emotions of a true Henry fan. This book allowed Mrs. Henry to express her views of each of her illustrators, and how she felt they interpeted her stories. The insights into her creative world are a joy to experience. Her admiration for these artists is easily understood after viewing all of the richly illustated pages provided in this volume. This book is a joy to any horse lover young or simply young at heart.

This is an exceptionally good discussion of the topics indicated in the title and a fine book for readers who want to think about qualities that make so much of Lewis's writing appealing. Schakel's case for reading the Narnian books in their original publication order (i.e. starting with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) would convince CSL himself that the current marketing of the series as beginning with The Magician's Nephew is a mistake). His book will get many readers to look beyond Lewis to music and pictorial art that Lewis cared about. I would rank this with George Sayer's biography JACK as one of my two favorite texts on Lewis.

The author, Frank Cioffi, provides a roadmap to follow in creating exciting, unique persuasive essays -- particuarly those for difficult, highly subjective fields like literature, management, or sociology. Although it has been successfully applied in the medical field by his students.

This is an edgy book that presents the author's strong opinions on how persuasive essays should be written. It might be used as an adjunct textbook in a persuasive writing class as it is not an introductory type of book. The book assumes you have some previous experience in writing persuasive essays.

I particularly liked the following topics:

- The plea to the reader to stay forever curious and to constantly be writing persuasive essays that require researching and deep thinking. His chapter on writing research papers was most helpful.
- Great text selections (and references to authors).
- His plea to look for disconfirmatory evidence as well as confirmatory ones. Particularly his concept of Infeeling (sync'ing up with the reader). Also how disconfirmatory evidence helps you create his "Delta T" (changed Thesis) that's finalized in the conclusion. This discussion was new and helpful, but may not work in all types of essays.
- The need to argue for something new, not obvious, not taken for granted, or superficial; otherwise, you'll have a boring essay.
- Why you must know your audience and how/why to lead your reader's questions. His (borrowed) idea of the reader over your shoulder called the Development Demon tracking the reader's questions.
- How to use questions in the early writing stages to help you find a new and exciting Thesis.
- His unique concept of starting with a Thesis and then concluding with a changed Thesis (Delta T) after taking into account your proof and the con arguments that don't destroy your Thesis but change it in a modest way.
- Some of his idea-creation techniques were interesting.
- How to use the concluding sentence on a paragraph.
- How to integrate quotations and proof, particularly how not to do it.
- His nicely organized list of things not to do when considering style. And the list of things to do to delight the reader.
- The importance of surprising the reader.
- The importance of metaphors found in great writing.

However, I really took issue with the following:

- When talking about style and paragraph development the author never referenced Joseph Williams on "Style" yet used what I consider to be William's logic of providing Old information first, then New. And furtermore, Williams does it so much better. Look online here on Amazon for the more recent editions of "Style" or any of his other books on style by Joseph Williams.

I liked this book very much and highly recommend it for anyone writing essays -- particularly persuasive essays. The book also applies to writers of "creative non-fiction."

Once I started it, I couldn't put it down. Keep your dictionary handy as I must have added about 50 new words to my new vocabulary book.

John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX

In this pathbreaking analysis of Cather's major novels, D.C. Peck sets a new standard for placing and understanding Cather in her historical context. A must read for both Cather scholars and anyone who has enjoyed her fiction.

Fine book, great addition with an icon I have personally seen at St. Olaf's Church in downtown Minneapolis adorning the cover of this book. Great painting but it is not by Leonardo DaVinci and this book is not by Thomas A. Kempis. This is an important matter because Thomas A. Kempis has written one of the alltime Christian Classics in "The imitation of Christ"; quite possibly the most important book after the Bible itself in the Christian religion. Kempis' book was published cerca 1500; apparently this book was written around 1768.

This book was written by Alexander De Rouville some years after, there is a history to be studied here. The De Rouville book does emulate Thomas A. Kempis' masterpiece work The Imitation of Christ (Dover Thrift Editions)but only applying similar precepts to the Mother of G-d; being a book that is very reflective on Mary, Spouse of the Holy Spirit in scripture. Here is the same book showing the proper author Imitation of Mary/No. 330/00. In both "Imitation of Jesus" and "Imitation of Mary", Jesus and Mary speak to the reader in the first person and in places, a disciple of the former book and a believer in the latter case share the dialogue. "Imitation of Mary" seems to have prayers interspersed with it. While the "Imitation of Mary" seems to encompass such things as lessons in humility, there is indeed, no substitution for the original "Imitation of Jesus" whose pages are so profound, they need to be read more than once and this very depth makes it a book to truly reflect on, it does indeed seem divinely inspired and everyone should read it, not to take away from this book. Both are just under 300 pages.

A "turtleback" book; that is a curious term but all the same, a good book.

This book challenges so many of the assumptions of white males who continue to attempt to keep Women from showing their work. So much courageous work is being done by Women that it simply can not be kept quiet!!!! As a white woman, I was especially pleased to see that Women of Color were included in the discussions in this book.

How refreshing it is to read a book targeted to graduate programs at universities and to graduate students. This book is well written, well edited and, most importantly, not boring. It will become a valuable tool to graduate programs worldwide. This book enables a better understanding of an environment in which students become teachers and teachers become students. Bravo!