The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature

The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature is a reference work first published in 1984, with its most recent edition in 2015. The Oxford Companions is a book series providing general knowledge within a specific area,[1] in this case, children's literature.

The first edition of Companion, by the husband-and-wife team of Humphrey Carpenter and Mari Prichard,[2] was published by Oxford University Press in 1984.[3] Iona and Peter Opie originally intended to write the Companion but did not complete it.[4] Although they consulted with others, Carpenter and Prichard wrote each entry themselves.[5] In about 2,000 entries,[6] it covers children's books and folklore from the Commonwealth, United States, and some other countries.[3][7]

Daniel Hahn's updated edition of the Companion was published in 2015.[2][8] Its longest entry is on Harry Potter.[2]

  1. ^ "Oxford Companions". Oxford University Press. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  2. ^ a b c Mangan, Lucy (18 April 2015). "The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature review – from Jonathan Swift to JK Rowling". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  3. ^ a b West, Mark I. (1997). Everyone's Guide to Children's Literature. Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin: Highsmith Press. pp. 13–14. ISBN 0-917846-90-7. OCLC 36713094.
  4. ^ Welty, Eudora (19 August 1984). "Innocence, Sin and J.D. Salinger". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  5. ^ Alderson, Brian (June 1986). "Review of The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature". The Library. 8 (2): 187–189. ISSN 0024-2160.
  6. ^ Patrick, Gay D. (1992). Building the Reference Collection: A How-to-Do-It Manual for School and Public Librarians. Neal-Schuman. p. 70. ISBN 1-55570-105-1. OCLC 26503735.
  7. ^ Kehler, Dorothea (1997). Problems in Literary Research: A Guide to Selected Reference Works (4th ed.). Scarecrow Press. p. 180. ISBN 0-8108-3216-X. OCLC 35016619.
  8. ^ Stevens, J. (February 2016). "Review of The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature (2d edition)". Choice Reviews. 53 (6). Gale A444596805.