Bridges to Understanding

This is the fourth volume sponsored by the United States Board on Books for Young People, following Children's Books from Other Countries (1998), The World Through Children's Books (2002), and Crossing Boundaries (2006). This latest volume, edited by Linda M. Pavonetti, includes books published between 2005 and 2009. This annotated bibliography, organized geographically by world region and country, with descriptions of nearly 700 books representing more than 70 countries, is a valuable resource for librarians, teachers, and anyone else seeking to promote international understanding through children's literature. Like its predecessors, it will be an important tool for providing stories that will help children understand our differences while simultaneously demonstrating our common humanity.

This delightful publication represents a commitment by the author to enlarge the cultural experiences of children through exposure to children’s books.  It is sponsored by the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY), and the author quotes the founder of the international organisation (IBBY) that  peaceful coexistence can begin with international literary and artistic exposure of literature to children of the world....There are only a few folk tales in the collection, since it was felt that this was an easily accessible list. All the bibliographic entries follow the same format: author/editor, translator where appropriate, title, illustrator where appropriate, publisher and date of publication. Alternative titles are listed if appropriate, as well as ISBNs, pagination, approximate reading level, cultural relevance and genre. For each there is a scholarly, critical commentary, ending with any major awards received. There are notes about the author/illustrator’s country of origin or current residency.  Naturally there could be debate about the titles selected or not selected for inclusion, and obviously editorial decisions are part of the  quality of the book.  Considering the thorough approach, the book’s international coverage is staggering. Publications from over 90 countries are included, and there is a chapter on multinational books. There are 46 Australian titles and five NZ titles. There are web addresses for online exploration as well as details of print resources. A further chapter discusses the major international children’s literary awards and the major US awards within the 2005-2010 time frame. The book concludes with an author/translator/illustrator index and a title index.

Linda M. Pavonetti is associate professor of Reading and Language Arts at Oakland University.