Booklist
For those not familiar with this title, it is a fine example of a bibliography valuable for both readers' advisory and scholarly purposes. Its division of the genre into 12 very narrow subgenres makes it especially appealing for librarians not intimately familiar with the wide varieties of fantasy literature. It covers novels and story collections for readers in grades 3-12, published in English in the U.S. between 1900 and 2004. Exceptions are made for a few nineteenth-century classics. Adult books that appeal to young readers are also included.
The introduction offers an overview of the literature that is informative and interesting. Core lists of outstanding titles by genre and lists of award-winning titles precede the annotated lists. Each entry gives author and title, grade level, an annotation (for main titles, none for sequels), edition information, and citations for reviews. Each subgenre section begins with the specifics of how the genre is different from the others. Complete author and illustrator, title, series, and subject indexes finish the book.
There is at least one change in this edition that is worthy of comment. The 7,600 titles included in the listings represent a 62 percent increase over the previous edition, necessitating the elimination of the "Research Guide" that had been a large part of the most previous editions. Although this is a loss to scholars, the greater coverage of titles strengthens the readers' advisory and collection development uses of the volume. It would seem wise to retain the previous edition if the "Research Guide" has been useful in the past. Nonetheless, this is an excellent resource, and with its low price and wide applications, the volume should have a place in most school, public, and academic libraries. Danise Hoover
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