A Guide to Canadian Children's Books

Anne Hutchings, a former elementary-school teacher-librarian with the
Durham Board of Education, is an educational consultant.

A Guide to Canadian Children’s Books in English by Deirdre Baker
(familiar to many from her children’s book reviews in The Toronto
Star) and Ken Setterington (reviewer for CBC’s This Morning and
Canadian Living magazine) is a must-have for both public and school
libraries. Parents anxious to find the very best in Canadian
children’s books for their children will also find the book an
invaluable resource.

In their introduction, the authors outline their criteria for selecting
the books in this guide: they must be written or illustrated by a
Canadian living in Canada or elsewhere or by a non-Canadian living in
Canada; they must be of the highest literary quality, taking into
consideration such things as plot, style, characterization, and setting;
in the case of picture books, the illustrations must extend and enhance,
not merely support, the text; and, finally, the books must be currently
in print or readily available through libraries, etc. While the titles
included exemplify the very best in Canadian children’s literature,
books of exceptional quality are noted and identified by asterisks, then
listed again in an appendix titled “Highly Recommended.”

The guide is organized by age and genre. There are 12 sections in all:
Board Books, Concept Books, Picture Books, Traditional Tales, Poetry and
Rhyming Stories, Books for Beginning Readers, Novels 7 to 12, Short
Story Collections and Anthologies 7 to 12, Series Books, Novels 12 and
Up, and Short Story Collections 12 and Up. The last section,
Non-Fiction, contains a selection of non-fiction titles, which is very
limited because the authors believe that non-fiction demands an entire
guide of its own.

Annotations are brief, yet thorough. The subject or theme is
identified, and strengths and (if applicable) weaknesses are pointed
out. Suggestions are made as to the book’s usefulness and type of
audience to whom it may appeal. The guide is extensively
cross-referenced so that titles listed in one section will not be
overlooked by users searching elsewhere in the guide. When an author has
written other books not reviewed in the guide, these additional titles
are noted at the end of the entry.

In addition to the usual title, author/illustrator/editor and subject
indexes, the guide also has an index of settings in Canada arranged by
geographical region and an index that identifies the hometowns of
authors/illustrators/editors living in Canada.

Entertaining, informative, and easy to use, the guide will undoubtedly
help to fulfill the authors’ aim in writing this book: to get the
right book into the right hands at the right time. It is hoped that
regular updates will be available and that a guide to non-fiction is
forthcoming. Highly recommended.