A to Zoo: Subject Access to Children's Picture Books Seventh Edition

Citation

Hannabuss, S. (2007), "A to Zoo: Subject Access to Children's Picture Books Seventh Edition", Library Review, Vol. 56 No. 3, pp. 259-261. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530710736127

The current output – quality as well as range – of picture books for children and the need for effective subject access to such books has rightly encouraged Carolyn and John Lima (former librarians in California) and publisher Libraries Unlimited to produce this well‐known work. It is now in its seventh edition, with over 28,000 entries (titles) catalogued in it, under more than 1,350 subject headings. In their preface they identify trends, like gender and multiculturalism, which continue to shape picture books, and in their introduction, they look back to a great tradition of illustrated children's books from Comenius to Crane, Caldecott and Greenaway, and into the present day. A useful well‐chosen list of reading on book illustration in this field is also provided. It is an area where the interests of specialist bibliographers, librarians, cataloguers, teachers, publishers and booksellers converge, and the subject index will be of interest to all and any of them, above all using English‐language fact and fiction works, for younger children, where American editions can readily be obtained.

The book has five major sections – subject headings, subject guide, bibliographic guide, title index, and illustrator index. It is heavy book to consult so keep a table handy, and the paper is wafer‐thin so take care moving about, but register and clarity are good and editing and presentation come across very well indeed with parallel‐column text. Subject headings give the reader immediate access to the thousand and more subjects of the book – scarecrows and sun, prisons and weather. Some are popular, like tall tales, while others are abstract, like participation and sibling rivalry. Arrangements of headings and sub‐headings are logical and clear (for example, activities and animals broken down into many categories, all readily usable and with a logical fit with recognized classification). Cross‐references are well thought out: bigotry see prejudice, Amish see ethnic groups, anger see emotions, Buddhism see religion. Some deal with the actual book – like “format, board books”, or with type of text – like “rhyming text”, or with what the uses of the book – like “telling stories – activities – storytelling”. Others (like “sea and seashore” cross‐reference to “beaches”, but you will have to connect up “rivers” for yourself).

The subject guide itself (some 600 pages) applies the subject headings, a series of alphabetical headings in sequence with titles alphabetically by author name within each section, or by title when the author is unknown. The reader is referred to the bibliographic guide for full citations. The subject guide, typically, includes Eric Carle under “animals” for works like The Very Busy Spider (which itself can be pursued under the title index and the illustrator index). Other subject groupings are islands and parties, royalty and toys. Authors and author‐illustrators like Tony Ross, writers like Charlotte Zolotow, and earlier writers like the Grimm brothers in later editions appear under subjects like “behaviour – growing up”. This gives the book a useful bibliographical role and makes it useful, too, as a thematic index for projects and thematic work, in the library and with teachers, as you choose. The range of work within each subject is both current and historical, so, under “toys” we find Shirley Hughes and Ichikawa as well as Bianco and Drummond and Andersen. In this section, too, as well as throughout, the reader is as likely to encounter Farjeon and Bemelmans, Perrault and Wilde, Kipling and Ardizzone, as moderns like Floella Benjamin and many more. Natural connections in this section are titles with subjects in their titles (for example, the many books on “snow”) and instances where authors are also illustrators of their own works.

The bibliographic guide (another 600 or so pages) covers “A is for alphabet” to Zwetchkenbaum, and is an alphabetical arrangement by author's name (main authors where there are joint authors) of the picture books. Under Margaret Mahy, for example, we find some 30 entries, by title, with publisher and date, ISBN and subject cross‐reference (such as “character traits – cleanliness” against Mahy's book Keeping House from 1991. Sequences under well‐known names like Anthony Browne and John Burningham are reliably thorough (all American editions). Many quite prolific authors/illustrators (like Cousins and Day, Dodd and Joosse, Hawkins and Gantos) will be known only to children's specialists, and are well‐represented. It may be, from another point of view, that some will prove merely ephemeral, but the Limas argue that they have checked with collections, publishers and so forth, and rightly say that this index is wider than any library can be. In this sense, then, some professionals will use this not only as an index but also as a collection building tool. The bibliographic guide also provides good listings of editions of popular themes like “Mother Goose”.

The title index provides titles alphabetically with authors in brackets and a page number referring the reader to the bibliographic guide. Typically, Ears are for Hearing (1990) by “Paul Showers” refers you to page 1,203 where the book may be found along with 12 others by him. Searches can be made here by keywords in titles, as with “snow” mentioned above. There is the usual natural case to be made for a database version of this work, but the hardcopy is a handy desktop tool. Finally there is the illustrator index, gathering up not only author‐illustrators like Margot Zemach and Maurice Sendak, Errol Le Cain and Ulf Löfgren, but also illustrators like Michael Foreman and Evaline Ness who illustrate the books of others as well as write and illustrate their own.

This is a clear labour of love and an attractive purchase for any specialist library providing systematic subject access materials in children's picture books, as well as wanting to show such works to students of library science. Libraries Unlimited is an imprint of Greenwood Books, who also publish Kirk's (2005) Companion to Children's Picture Books. Comparison might be made also with the guides by Cianciolo (1997, 1999). A to Zoo is a weightier index than its main title suggests, alert to the creative and commercial range of its chosen genre, and providing several interlocking routes into it. Value judgements might be made about popular and quality picture books, and the Caldecott and Greenaway awards, among others, are there to acknowledge quality, yet here the Limas have cast their net wide and come up with many treasures worth cataloguing.