Author and editor Anita Silvey to examine "100 Best Books for Children" Nov. 9

Oct. 27, 2005 -- Anita Silvey, one of the nation's leading experts on children's literature, will speak on "100 Best Books for Children: Our Greatest Children's Books and the Stories Behind Them" for Washington University's Center for the Humanities in Arts & Sciences.

Neil Giordano

Anita Silvey

The illustrated lecture stems from Silvey's recent book, 100 Best Books for Children (2004), an in-depth survey of children's literature between 1902 and 2002. In addition, Gerald Early, Ph.D., the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters and director of the Center for the Humanities, will discuss the center's new Children's Studies minor, which begins offering classes in spring 2006.

The event is free and open to the public and begins at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, in McMillan Café (Room 115), McMillan Hall, located on the university's Hilltop Campus. Seating is extremely limited. For more information or to reserve a seat, call (314) 935-5576.

Silvey estimates that she has read 125,000 children's books, starting from childhood and continuing through her eleven-year tenure as a reviewer and editor of The Horn Book Magazine, a publication that has been called "the Bible of children's literature." From 1995 to 2001, Silvey oversaw all children's book and young adult publishing for Houghton Mifflin and in 2002 edited The Essential Guide to Children's Books and Their Creators. She is currently a member of the editorial board of Cricket Magazine and editor of the Vermont Folklife Center Children's Book Series. She also teaches courses at Simmons College in Boston and St. Michael's College in Burlington, VT.

The new Children's Studies minor will allow students to examine childhood as a cultural, scientific, historical, aesthetic and theoretical construct. It will require 15 units of credit, including two required courses: Introduction to Psychology and Child Development. Three additional electives must also be taken from at least two of the following disciplines: Education, English, History and African & African-American Studies.