Lanes begins this articulate, thoughtful essay collection by exploring the different climate in publishing today from when she wrote her first group of essays about children's books, Down the Rabbit Hole
(1971). She then embarks on a "nostalgic trip back to the last half of the last century." Her essay "On 'Judging,' " about her experience judging the New York Times'
s10 Best Illustrated Children's Books for 1973, will be appreciated by any critic as well as any librarian or bookseller faced with tough choices about what to make room for on the shelf. Lanes shares her criteria while dropping delectable tidbits (e.g., Sendak's The Juniper Tree
was "the only unanimous choice of all three judges"). She is not afraid to knock down literary pedestals, revealing a darker side to Hans Christian Andersen through his letters to American editor Horace Scudder, and she eloquently tackles the negative side effects of overzealous political correctness (regarding The Story of Little Black Sambo
and The Five Chinese Brothers,
among others). All the essays in this chapter appeared previously in periodicals, but taken together they make a strong statement about how important works can be maligned when taken out of context. The closing chapter on J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, though complimentary, feels tacked-on, but that's a quibble about an otherwise thought-provoking, cogently organized volume. B&w illus. (Dec.)
