Jami SpencerEnglish 401Review of JournalsChildren’s LiteratureCritical analysis of literature for children gained momentum in the 1960’s and 70’s as the view of children’s books began a major change. With President Johnson’s support of funds for Secondary Education and the idea of children’s books as literature for both adults and children, this time period became known as the “Golden Age” of children’s literature (www.english.ilstu.edu/strickland/401/petros2.html). The key issue to the development of Children’s Literature as a scholarly field centers around its intended audience. While the idea of children’s books exclusively for children rendered the subject area unimposing, or not noteworthy, the idea of children’s books for a broad audience of adults and children renders it worthy of scientific, critical, literary approaches. The very idea, though, that children’s literature is ever for children in the first place, is now contested. Where in the 60’s and 70’s, children’s literature was fighting for and establishing its place within critical areas of study, today, it is fighting forthe child as audience. Current debates often center on the impossibility of children’s literature. Zipes states: “The problem of evaluating children’s literature is, of course, complicated by the accepted notion that there is such a homogenous thing as children’s literature” (Zipes,62). He goes on to explain that “children’s literature is produced primarily by and for adults, and the evaluative processes established by critics…of what is good children’s literature exclude, for the most part, the opinions of young people” (63). What he and many say, then, is that adults write children’s books according to an adult concept of childhood and that critics critique according to the same perspective. Despite the controversy over audience, Children’s Literature as an area of study and critical analysis does exist and is flourishing under such debate.I will examine several prominent scholarly journals in the field of Children’s Literature. Iwill include a broad selection to include the variety of specialized journals in this field. These include specifically American, or international journals, journals geared to teachers, and those that focus on critical approaches to the study of children’s texts. Mostare theme or genre-centered per issue, open to a broad range of topics that are organized thematically and introduced by a scholarly letter from the editor.Journals:Children’s Literature Association QuarterlyChildren’s Literature Association Quarterly is an academic journal created in 1976 that encourages serious scholarship and research in children’s literature. It is sponsored by the Children’s Literature Association and is published by Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. The acting editor is a professor of children’s literature at Illinois State University, Roberta Seelinger Trites. The journal examines all aspects of children’sliterature, including critical approaches to all genre and a large section dedicated to book reviews. In the Spring, 2002 issue, the scholarly essays in this special issue of the Quarterly centered around children’s verse. The introduction, “‘The trouble isn’t makingpoems, the trouble’s finding somebody that will listen to them’: Negotiating a Place for Poetry in Children’s Literature Studies,” calls for a “renewed commitment to creating a lasting place for children’s poetry” in the discipline of children’s literature, in educationalsettings, and more specifically in the form of scholarly essays on children’s poetry in the Quarterly itself. This introduction to the special issue is followed by four essays that do just as the editors ask, focus on the importance of poetry for children by examining the work of Randall Jarrell, Ann and Jane Taylor, and Edward Gorey.The Horn Book MagazineThe Horn Book Magazine is one of the earliest journals devoted to children’s literature. Itwas founded by Bertha Mahoney Miller in 1924 and focuses broadly on books for children and young adults. The magazine is published six times per year in Boston, Massachusetts. The July/August issue of 2002 includes award acceptance speeches by David Wiesner and Linda Sue Park, a critical article written about each of them, and an essay appraisal of the Pullman trilogy by John Townsend. The editor begins the issue with a discussion entitled “Classic Reckoning” that acts as an apologetic for the focus andtextual space dedicated recently to the Harry Potter series and the Pullman trilogy. The discussion examines the marks of a classic in the making and a masterpiece in contrast. The classic is defined as “a book that won’t go away, one whose presence demandscontinued reckoning by readers and writers alike.” The upcoming issue in November/December changes themes from contemporary classics to history, Fritz and Freedman. The journal dedicates space to book reviews and in the July issue, a field notes column on Native American Writing. It is playfully illustrated with the Wiesner’s three pig characters inviting the reader inside the journal. The website for the journal is www.hbook.com.Signal: Approaches to Children’s BooksThe first issue of Signal was published by Thimble Press in January of 1970. The journalwas founded by Aidan and Nancy Chambers in 1969. The 100th and final issue of Signal will be published in August, 2003 and will combine the three final issues in 2003 in a special 200+ page volume. Nancy Chambers remains the Editor from the initial 1970 issue through the final 100th issue. The September 2002 issue examines a wide variety of topics within children’s literature. The five articles are: “Elsie Piddock, Then and Now,” “The Discipline of Children’s Literature: To Benchmark or not to Benchmark,” “Keeping the Children’s Classics Alive and the Case of Beatrix Potter,” “Teaching Children’s Literature as a comparative literary subject in a British University,” and “The Collecting Mystery.” In a previous issue, Peter Hollindale published a lecture examining the image of childhood, childhood as a journey metaphorically and the journeying child in children’s literature. Signal is a simple, yet serious journal which seeks to examine various critical approaches to children’s literature.The Lion and the UnicornThe Lion and