Although L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published one hundred years ago, literary critics and historians continue to discover new approaches to the fantastic world of Oz. The second in a new series of anthologies sponsored by the Children's Literature Association, this collection of essays represents some of the most interesting of these new approaches. Beginning with a glance back over the entire history of research and commentary on the Oz books, this work is organized in three main sections. Essays in the "Origins of Oz" examine Frank Baum's personal history and unlock the mystery of one of the most bizarre episodes in the Oz books. "The World of Oz" looks at three very different aspects of Baum's world: its concept of home and family, its sense of humor, and its relationship to its young readers. "Oz on Screen" features both the silent films Baum produced himself and MGM's classic movie The Wizard of Oz.

First Published in 1995. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

St. Nicholas is acknowledged to be the best children's magazine published, particularly during the reign of its founding editor, Mary Mapes Dodge. From 1873 to 1905, Dodge worked to create what she called a ""pleasure ground"" for children - a magazine that would have great impact on several generations of children. The list of authors who wrote for her includes Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Rudyard Kipling, Theodore Roosevelt, and Mark Twain. The quality of the magazine's illustration was equally high. The magazine was also the launching pad for a new generation of authors and artists, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, E. B. White, Jack London, and Eudora Welty. This anthology of critical writing on St. Nicholas includes the most influential articles already published and newly commissioned essays on a variety of subjects, including the impact of the St. Nicholas league, the utopian thrust of the magazine's fiction, and how Dodge persuaded Kipling to become a children's writer. Essays also analyze Dodge's relationship with her readers, her editorial practice, the illustrations, American family life as seen by young British readers, war and military life, advertising, and the middle class preoccupation with ""change of fortune"" tales. The work places St. Nicholas in American cultural history, and analyzes how it both influenced and was influenced over thirty years. Essential documentary material presently unpublished or inaccessible and illustrations from the magazine are also included.

In Rediscoveries in Children's Literature Suzanne Rahn aims to extend the range of good books that children can study.